


Always By Your Side

by LucyCrewe11 (Raphaela_Crowley)



Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 34,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26867179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raphaela_Crowley/pseuds/LucyCrewe11
Summary: He always liked her older sister, Susan, but it was Lucy who finally took some notice of him, who befriended him when no one else would. But is it more than just friendship? And what happens when they get thrown into Narnia together?
Relationships: Lucy Pevensie/Boy From The Subway Station
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written December 2008 through the end of January 2009.

"Guess who's here again?" Edmund asked Peter as he walked passed the half open doorway of his older brother's room.

"Easy." Peter said without even bothering to look up from his desk where he had all of the homework he'd brought home with him for the weekend from the university he now attended spread out in front of him. "Ash?"

Edmund nodded.

Peter let out a chuckle. "He's been coming around here for years now. Lucy was only nine when he first started coming."

"Poor chap, you would have thought he'd have gotten the hint by now." Edmund said feeling rather bad for the poor fellow.

"Well he is a bit slow." Peter shrugged, looking up now. "Remember how long it took him to figure out that Susan's name is not 'Phyllis'?"

Edmund remembered. "And then he thought it must have been her middle and/or nickname."

"He's got to get himself a girlfriend." Peter said, standing up from the desk and pushing the chair back in behind himself. "Or at least a hobby."

"I think that's sort of why he comes around here." Edmund pointed out. "He's smitten with Susan."

"Well, unless that hot scary place where the devil is said to rule suddenly freezes over, Susan isn't going to give him the time of day." Peter reminded him.

"Well maybe if they were the last two people on earth she might look briefly in his direction..." Edmund came up with. "...and then look away indifferently."

"Ash just doesn't get it." Peter sighed. "Susan only likes him as a friend."

"And it took her long enough just for that." Edmund put in.

"You said it." Peter agreed.

Only in recent years had Susan even considered him a friend. For the first two years or so when he came around visiting and being his chipper friendly self Susan had thought of him as more of a scab. Something you had to put up with until the day came when you could peel it off and throw it away. But after a while he'd started to grown on her in a friendship sort of way. She learned that he came from a good family and was quite loyal. And the fact that he was always there when she needed someone came in handy.

She'd thought of him in a much more friendly way when he'd gone out of his way to pick up her up from a party she'd gone to after she'd refused to get in the car with her drunk friends. Going partying, drinking a little, and flirting with young men was one thing. Actually being in a car with someone who'd had so much to drink that they actually mistook a dust bunny for their grandmother was quite another. And of course she would have never heard the end of it from Peter. Not that her parents wouldn't be upset. They would be but they'd calm down, they'd get over it and trust her again. Peter be furious and never forget about it. As the eldest boy in the family he felt he had an almost fatherly role and never let the younger ones forget it. Lucy and Edmund didn't seem to mind this. It was almost as if they actually liked having Peter's constant over-protectiveness hanging over them.

But Susan didn't. She was sick of it. She was sick of his constant checking up on her. She wanted to be her own person without big brother getting in the way. That's why she hated it when he was right.

"Don't go with Jenny, she'll get drunk..." He'd warned her.

And of course Jenny had to prove him right by taking on a dare that she could drink ten tall glasses of wine and then walk across the bar with expensive china piled on her head without dropping any of it. (Susan hoped no one in that bar planned to walk around it bare foot later).

She'd needed a ride home and she didn't want to call Peter. Yes, he'd probably be thrilled that she was smart enough not to ride home with Jenny. But he'd probably rub it in that she shouldn't hang out with people like that. He'd say friends like that were the reason she'd stopped applying herself in school and why she hadn't gotten into a university. That was the last thing she'd wanted to hear about at the moment. She just wanted to get home, bathe, and then crawl under the blankets and fall asleep trying to avoid the fact that her pathetic life was going no where. So who could she call?

It had come to her at that moment that Ash, pain in the butt though she'd always seen him as would probably be more than willing to come and give her a ride home. The owner of the bar had told her she could only make one phone call (Maybe that's why she felt like she was in jail?) on the phone because he didn't want her running up the bill. Odds were if she wasn't the prettiest young woman who'd probably ever even said two words to him he wouldn't have even let her use the phone at all.

Of course Ash had come and gotten her like the good friend that he was. Even so, Susan couldn't bring herself to like him. He might as well have had 'Just Friends' tattooed on his forehead.

While Edmund and Peter were talking, Lucy came by. She was no longer the short, round, freckled little girl with her fair wispy hair pulled back into side braids that she'd been when Ash had first started coming around. She had grown up into a rather tall, slender young lady of nearly seventeen. She had long thick hair that framed a merry face that was rarely without a cheerful smile. She wasn't nearly as beautiful as Susan but she did have a certain charm of her own. Of course boys knew better than to bother her. She had two big brothers neither of which would have thought twice about beating the snot out of any boy who tried to mess with her. But even if it wasn't for that, the boys probably wouldn't have looked twice at her after seeing her sister and her standing side by side. The comparison was like that of a pretty blue wild flower to that of a rose. The rose being the most striking to behold was always the one most likely to be picked.

Not that Lucy minded at all. She had long gotten over her envy of her sister. When she'd been a young lass of ten or eleven. awkward and shy and always shoved to the side with her lovely older sister got to be in the spotlight, then she'd felt pricks of envy. It was back then that she had been willing to cause wars to make herself the beautiful one. No more though. Lucy had seen the effect beauty had on her sister. She'd become vain and didn't seem to even care that all anyone ever wanted to was look at her, never even letting her talk. Everyone that is expect her family and Ash.

Ash loved to hear Susan talk. He enjoyed speaking with her. He didn't come around to just sit and stare at her. Lucy wished her sister would pay more attention to him. Ash was a lot better than pretty much every young man Susan had ever gone out with.

Lucy couldn't help but notice that just about every one of those empty headed so-called men had a few traits that ever changed. Tall with dark hair. Every single one of them. She wondered if it was because Susan missed whatever it was she thought she might have had with Caspian if she'd been allowed to stay in Narnia and was trying to make up for it with these lunkheads. But it was too confusing to try and know for sure. Susan was convinced that Narnia hadn't been real. She'd was pretty much always saying things like, "Caspian who? Oh, wait you mean the prince in that game we played as little children? Oh yes, I remember." Whenever Peter and Edmund brought him up. Lucy never mentioned him. She missed him a lot herself, though not in the same way Susan did. Caspian was to Lucy what Ash was and would probably always be to Susan, just a friend.

"Who was that at the door?" Lucy asked her brothers.

"Oh, it was just Ash." Edmund said as causally as most people might say, "It was just the wind."

Lucy nodded, she was used to everyone ignoring Ash. Peter and Edmund liked him well enough but they'd never been close in spite of the fact that they had attended the same boarding school for years and had a number of classes together. They just had different interests.

Edmund had been very athletic and had gotten into rugger for a while before deciding to look for a part time job and study different things with the free time he had left so that he could figure out what he wanted to do with his life.

Peter as always was the studious one of the family and was always as their mother often put it, 'Studying himself into an early grave'. He did however manage to get into one of the top universities which was more than could be said for his friends who'd told him to take it easy.

Ash wasn't like either of her brothers though. He didn't have many friends aside from the Pevensies. He was quiet and sort of shy. He tended to blend into the background of whatever room he was in. He didn't have any real interests that he ever mentioned. He talked about his family a lot and mentioned something about possibly applying to an affordable upper school next year but that was about it. They didn't know much else about him even after all these years. Oh, they knew some little things. Like that his favorite fruit was the pear, that he had pretty much every allergy known to mankind, that he loved swimming and was good at it but had unfortunately not made the team in spite of the fact that he went out for it every year. Lucy couldn't help but think it was only because he was unpopular that they never let him join, not because of a lack of skill. But other than that, they knew nothing about him. He was just, 'That boy who likes Susan'.

Walking down into the living room, Lucy spotted Ash sitting on the couch. Susan hadn't acknowledged his presence yet because she was in the kitchen talking to one of her friends on the phone.

"He did not say that." Susan gasped to whomever was on the other line. "He did? Well then what did _she_ say? Well it's not true! I don't know who said that, I do not...she only said that because she's jealous...well of course not..."

Lucy rolled her eyes. That conversation was not going to end anytime soon. "Hello, Ash."

He smiled at her. "Hello, Lucy." he started looking through his backpack for something. After zippering and unzippering several compartments he finally found what he was looking for. "I was out yesterday, I saw this and I thought of you." He pulled out something in cream-coloured wrapping paper and handed it to her.

"You didn't have to." Lucy told him looking down at the buddle in her hands which felt a little heavier than she'd expected.

"I know." Ash shrugged. "I wanted to. I thought you'd like it."

"Thanks." Lucy smiled, tearing away the paper in spite of the fact that she'd always been told that the proper way to open a gift was to peel away at the tape that held the wrapping together. She simply couldn't help herself. Curiosity killed the manners.

Once Lucy had finished pulling back the wrapping she held a little glass lion the size of her fist. He was a beautiful lion made of the clearest most well made glass Lucy had ever seen. His mouth was open like he was yawning or else roaring. The light from the fireplace Mr. Pevensie had lit less than a half hour ago combined with the light from the lamp next to the couch shone brightly on the lion's mane and made it look like his face was surrounded by a rainbow of soft colours.

"It's beautiful." Lucy breathed softly unable to take her eyes off of the lovely gift.

"Well I know you like lions." Ash said modestly. "You're always looking at pictures of them and stuff. And you did get so awful excited when you read the Turkish word for lion in 'The thousand and one nights' last year."

Lucy blushed a little. Aslan. The Turkish word was Aslan. For her it was a reminder that she and Aslan would meet again some day. For Susan it was just 'proof' that Narnia was only a game they'd played and not a real place they'd ruled over.

"Peter was reading 'The thousand and one nights' when we were at the professor's." Susan had said in a very patronizing tone of voice. "And that's why in our play world there was a lion called Aslan."

Peter would shake his head at that but he'd never argue. After all, it was true what she said about him reading that while they were staying with the professor during the war and there was no arguing with a know-it-all like Susan had become.

"Thank you so much." Lucy gave him a light hug.

"You're more than welcome." Ash sighed. "Sometimes I think your the only person who actually likes me."

"Oh that's not true." Lucy turned crimson. "People like you."

Ash shrugged his shoulders sadly. "I guess so."

Still on the phone in the kitchen Susan's voice rang through the house. "No way! She said what now?"

"Any chance of her getting off anytime soon?" Ash looked at Lucy hopefully.

Lucy shook her head. "Sorry."

"Well, I have to get home early tonight, I promised Mum." Ash was probably the only person in his early twenties who could say that with out embarrassment.

"I'll tell her you were here." Lucy said weakly.

"Like she'll care." Ash seemed a little more down than usual. Maybe the fact that Susan would never like him was starting to sink it at last. He pulled a yellow rose out of his back pack and handed it to Lucy. "Could you give this to her for me?"

"Sure." Lucy said, running her fingers along the rose's smooth as marble petals.

"Thanks." Ash swung the back pack over one shoulder. "See you around."

"See you." Lucy said, holding the door open for him.

She watched him walk away down the street until he was out of sight. Poor guy. He'd always been there. Susan had better get some sense and remember exactly who'd helped her whenever she needed it. Who'd helped her study for a class she nearly failed? Who'd picked up her little sister when she bailed because of a social event she simply _had_ to attend? Who'd let her cry on his shoulder when last year, Peter caught pneumonia and nearly died? Who went out of his way to make sure that his parents didn't have Turkish Delight for dessert the night the Pevensies came over for dinner because for some unknown reason (They never told him about Narnia) Edmund always turned green in the face and had to vomit whenever he caught a whiff of it? None of the boys Susan was always bringing around did all that, but Ash did. He honestly cared. And It upset Lucy to no end that Susan didn't.


	2. Chapter 2

"Was someone at the door a few hours ago?" Susan asked Lucy who felt a prick of annoyance, not just at her sister's treatment of Ash but also at the fact that she was being interrupted by her sister now. Now, when she was in the middle of reading one of the most exciting adventure books she'd ever read.

One might think that adventure books lost their thrill after you've had real adventures yourself but that's not so-at least, it wasn't so for Lucy. She liked this book _because_ it reminded her of her time in Narnia. Better still, it had some very pretty parts that reminded her maybe just a little of that forgotten story in the magic book, the one she just couldn't seem to remember no matter how hard she tried. The one about a cup and a sword and a tree and a green hill, if that's really what it was about, she couldn't really recall it for sure.

So it was with a half-groan half-sigh that she closed the book making a slight _thud_ and gave her full attention to her older sister.

"Yes," Lucy answered her question. "Ash was here."

"Oh." Susan looked bored. Lucy wasn't sure what it was she was bored of. Ash? Her family? Her life? The fact that she was no longer on the phone thus closing up the chance for anymore gossip tonight?

"He left this for you." Lucy offered her the yellow rose.

Susan shook her head. "Why don't you hang on to it?" She looked passed the rejected flower and reached for her hair brush which she'd left on the small wood table in the hallway under the mirror that hung there.

"But he said to give it to you." Lucy protested, her grip around the book she still held in her other hand tightening out of anger and maybe a little bit of embarrassment.

Susan ignored her and started working the brush through her long thick black hair. "It's just a flower."

Lucy rolled her eyes, placed the rose down, and opened her book again.

Susan glanced at the cover. "Still reading those books?" She asked rather condescendingly. "Those books were written for ten year old boys, can't you just read about fashion like a normal seventeen year old girl?"

Bother Susan. Lucy thought bitterly. Not only does she treat Ash like dirt, ignore Peter and Edmund whenever she can, but she cant let me be.

Susan was always tearing apart Lucy's wall of comfort. Each remark that was claimed to be well-meant was like a kick to the weakest bricks of that wall. Lucy loved and trusted her sister, or at least, she had. Now she saw another person in her sister's body. Someone who wasn't the least bit like the queen she'd co-ruled Narnia with all those years ago.

Although Susan expected Lucy to answer her, Lucy didn't say anything. She shut the book again, picked up the rose sliding the stem into the binding, and carried her things upstairs to her room.

Once there, Lucy took the rose out of the binding and placed in the crystal vase on her nightstand. That's where it would have to stay. No one else was going to bother with it. It would be up to Lucy to watch over it.

She tried to focus on her book but her eyes kept straying over to the glass lion on her bedside table. He was so beautiful. Exactly what Aslan himself would look like if he was make of translucent glass rather than golden fur and flesh and blood.

Putting the book down on the bed beside her she reached over and took the lion in her hands with no concern for the finger prints her thumbs were making on its paws.

-FLASH BACK-

"Please Aslan," Lucy said gazing into his great eyes with eager hopefulness written all over her face. "Before we go, Will you tell us when we can come back to Narnia again?"

"Yes do." Edmund chimed in. "And please, could it be soon?"

He and Lucy clasped hands and waited for Aslan's answer.

"Children." Aslan said gravely. "Children, I wish you wouldn't ask that, for I fear you will be saddened by the answer."

"Oh Aslan, you don't mean to say..." Edmund gulped down some air before going on. He was trying not to cry. "That you're going to send us away for good like you did to Peter and Susan are you? Oh please, no. We're not quite as old as they were yet are we?"

"Edmund, this has been your last time in Narnia." Aslan told him, resting a golden paw on his shaking shoulders. "As for Eustace, this has been his last time too."

"But I've only gotten to come once!" Eustace whined. "And it's so nice here, mightn't I be allowed to return?"

"Eustace, you have learned what you needed, your time is up." Aslan said firmly but not unkindly.

Edmund started to weep and Lucy put her arms around his neck and tried to comfort him. Still, she held back tears of her own, frightened that Aslan would tell her she wouldn't be allowed to return either.

"What of Lucy?" Eustace managed. "Is she never to come back as well?"

"Do you really need to know that?" Aslan raised one of his fair golden brows at him.

"No, I suppose not." Eustace hung his head glumly.

"Come now, it is time to go back to your own world." Aslan told them finally.

-END FLASHBACK-

"Lucy?" There was a soft knock at the door. "Can I come in?"

"Yes." Lucy said, her voice nearly a whisper after being so suddenly pulled from her thoughts.

It was Peter. He was about as tall as he had been during his rein as high king of Narnia but he was much thinner and paler. He seemed to have time only for three things in his life now. Studying, worrying about everything and everyone as though the weight of the whole family rested on his shoulders (Perhaps it did), and Lucy. He always had time for Lucy who was his favorite sister and the only one of the two options who actually listened to what he had to say.

Lucy worried about his health as much as their mum did, if not more. She saw dark rings around his eyes getting darker every day. He was on less and less sleep she knew. She wished she could coax him into eating something and getting some actual meat on his bones but he'd probably just shrug his shoulders and say, "No thanks, I'm not hungry."

"Hullo, Lu." He said softly as he walked into the room.

"Hi." Lucy said softly. So much had changed for them. Where had the days of them being a happy foursome gone? Why were they trapped in such a hurtful rut? Why did Peter look so sad all the time? Why did she feel so lost?

"Hey that's nice." Peter commented looking down at the glass lion in his little sister's hands. "Where'd you get that?"

"Ash gave it to me." Lucy told him, handing it to her brother so he could examine it more closely.

"It's a nice gift." Peter said simply, looking at it for a moment, before placing it on Lucy's bed stand.

"Yes, it is." Lucy didn't know what else to say.

"Poor Ash." Peter said sympathetically as he took a seat on the bed beside Lucy.

"Why doesn't Susan like him?" Lucy asked scooting closer to her brother.

"Who knows?" Peter sighed. "Susan's been so different lately. I don't even know who she is anymore."

"You felt it too?" Lucy said softly feeling a little less alone.

"Yes." Peter nodded, putting his arm around her in a comforting way.

"Think she'll smooth out after a while?" Lucy asked, rest her head on her brother's shoulder.

"I don't know." Peter sighed. "I hope so, I think we all do, but I honestly don't know."

Lucy let out a sigh of her own. She wished things were different. She longed to be back in Narnia where everything just felt right even when life wasn't perfect.

"You've gotten so big." Peter said in a sentimental tone. "I can't believe this is your last year of school."

"I know." Lucy whispered.

"Are you all set for tomorrow?" Peter checked.

"Yes." Lucy assured him. "I've got all my school books and things."

"Did you pack a lunch?" Peter asked.

"I forgot." Lucy admitted.

"I'll make something for you to take with you in the morning." Peter promised.

Lucy thought he'd be better off fixing a proper meal for himself. "No, it's alright. I have a little bit of money, I'll buy myself lunch at one of the stops."

Peter gave in. "Well as long as you have something." He pulled something out from behind his back that Lucy hadn't realized he'd been hiding. "I have something for you. I guess you could think of it as a back to school gift."

Lucy felt a little guilty taking the gift-wrapped rectangle shaped present from him. She knew he didn't have a lot of money to spare and had more likely than not skipped a meal or two on campus to pay for whatever it was. Which also meant she would in turn feel just as guilty refusing it. Gosh was life complicated.

"What is it?" Lucy blurted out.

"Why don't you open it and see?" Peter suggested, suppressing a smile.

Lucy once more was too curious to bother with manners and knew Peter wouldn't mind her tearing away the paper shamelessly. The paper wasn't the important part.

Lucy almost forgot to breathe when she saw what the gift was. A beautiful leather bound book with her name in wavy gold script in the front and on the side binding. "Peter Pevensie, you didn't!"

"Surprise." Peter stopped suppressing his smile now.

Lucy opened the book to the title page. 'The collected poems of Queen Lucy The Valliant'. Sure enough the whole book was a collection of the poems Lucy had written over the years.

Those poems were very close to her heart because they were mostly about her life in Narnia and how she felt about Aslan. She'd never shown those poems to anyone other than Peter. Not even Edmund had ever laid eyes one a single world of it. She kept them all in a old ratty notebook marked LP in sloppy black marker. It had been old and yellow with the cover falling off.

"Peter..." Lucy didn't know what to say, she was so over come with emotion.

"I hope you don't mind that I stole your note book." Peter blushed a little at admitting his theft.

"So that's where it went." Lucy laughed a little to herself, remembering how worried she'd been when she had first realized it had gone missing.

"Don't worry, I didn't show your poems to anyone, I know you wanted to keep them private." Peter assured her. "It's a first and only edition. I had it made just for you."

"Peter Pevensie, exactly how much money did you wa-" Lucy started before she realized that her tone made her sound like Susan and that Peter was starting to get this sad almost broken look in his eyes. "-I mean, It's lovely. Thank you." She hated herself for sounding so stiff.

"You're welcome Lu." Peter told her.

Lucy hugged him.

He planted a kiss on her forehead and stood up to leave. "Night Lu." He said as he reached the doorway. "Sweet dreams."

"Good night, Peter." Lucy whispered back. "See you in the morning."

The next morning Lucy got up and finished packing the last few things she planned on taking to school with her. She took a little back pack and put the book Peter had made for her in it first. Then she grabbed her little black wallet that contained the small amount of money she owned and placed that next to it. After that, she plucked Ash's rose out of its vase and pressed into one of the pockets though she wasn't sure why she did this, she just felt like it. She hesitated at the glass lion. She wanted to bring it with her but worried about breaking it. She reached for the two shawls and the scarf that hung from the rocking chair in the corner of her bedroom and wrapped all of them around the glass lion before safely tucking it front of the leather bound book and zippering the bag shut.

Hanging the back over on one shoulder, Lucy carefully walked downstairs for breakfast.

"Morning Lu." Peter greeted her cheerfully.

She noticed he had a fair share of Mum's home-made pancakes on his plate and felt more than a little relieved. At least now that he was home for a little bit, mum and Edmund could make sure he'd eat. Susan probably wouldn't care about his health until he was on his death bed...Lucy shook that thought out of her head for now. She had enough to think about with that plaguing her mind.

"Mum made pancakes." Edmund stated the obvious with his mouth full, accidentally spitting out a bit on Susan as she passed by eating an apple.

"Nice." Susan glared at him.

"Sorry." Edmund said without actually looking very sorry.

"Susan, sit down and have breakfast will you?" Mr. Pevensie looked up from his newspaper and coffee cup.

"Sorry no time, I've got to meet some friends of mine in..." She looked at the clock and let out a small gasp. "Now." She threw the barely half eaten apple into the waste basket by the door way and raced out without even asking if Lucy needed a ride to the train station even though there was a good chance she'd be going passed it.

"I worry about that girl." Mr. Pevensie said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"She'll be fine." Mrs. Pevensie said. "I was just like her when I was her age."

"You're kidding." Edmund said with a look of disgust on his face.

Peter chocked on a glass of orange juice and Lucy had to pound him on the back until he regained composure.

"Come on." Peter said to Lucy, reaching for the car keys. "I'll give you a ride to the station."

"Peter, you can't. You promised to drop that missing term paper off at Professor Brooks house before eleven remember?" His father reminded him.

"That's right." Peter slapped his forehead. "Well, someone has to take her or she'll be late."

"Why don't you call Ash and see if he can't take her?" Mrs. Pevensie suggested, sliding more pancakes onto her son's plate.

"Mum!" Peter protested. "I'm full."

"No you're not." She said firmly.

"Ash does have to go to the station anyway." Edmund added. "He's going to visit his grandparents. He's likely to even go by the same train as Lucy."

Peter stood up and went over to the phone. A few minutes later, Peter came back into the dinning room. "Ash said he'll be here in five minutes."

"Kay." Lucy muttered wondering why she suddenly didn't feel as hungry as she'd been a moment ago.

Five minutes later, Ash came to the door and said hello to everyone. Lucy couldn't help but feel somewhat impressed. Most boys would have just honked the horn. But in spite of the hurry he was in he waited without complaint while Lucy hugged everyone goodbye before getting in the car.

"Thanks for the ride." Lucy said as Ash lifted her two trunks into the back seat behind them.

"No problem." Ash told her not to mention it.

"Well thanks all the same." Lucy said, feeling a little stupid as she clutched her back pack tightly to her abdomen.

Finally they arrived at the station. Edmund being the sort who knew about trains had been right. They were going by the same train and even took seats right next to each other. Neither minded. It was nice to have someone to talk to on these sort of trips.

"So where's your sister today?" Ash asked as he slid their bags into the over head compartment. "I noticed she wasn't at the house with your brothers."

"She's out with her friends." Lucy told him.

"I see." Ash wasn't surprised.

"I can't believe this is my last year at St. Finbars." Lucy said looking out the window at the train's shadow below her.

"Time sure flies." Ash agreed. "You were such a little thing when I first met you and your family."

Lucy knew he didn't mean to offend her and managed a friendly smile.

Suddenly there was a rather rocky jerk. It made Lucy grip her backpack even tighter and made Ash turn very pale in the face.

"What was that?" Lucy asked nervously.

"I don't know...is it just me or is this train going a bit fast?" Ash noted.

"No, it does seem a little faster than..." Lucy wasn't able to finish her sentence because suddenly everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs and the train seemed to be shaking itself apart. Luggage flew off racks hitting people in the head. One nearly hit Lucy but Ash pulled her out of the way. Then there was something like a sudden crash and Lucy thought she felt Ash put his arm in front of her protectively. Then everything was black and cold for a few moments. She knew nothing and felt nothing.

Then when she opened her eyes she realized that she was standing up in a tall wood. Her back was against something tall and hard and she still had the back pack in her hands.

"What just happened?" She heard Ash's voice say. He was standing right next to her. "Why are we in the woods?"

Lucy turned around and looked up. The thing she'd had her back against was a lamppost. And it was in the middle of the lantern waste the very place where she had first met Mr. Tumnus. The place she had come into through the wardrobe as a little girl of no more than eight.

Ash was still blinking in confusion. "Where are we?"

"Narnia." Lucy said softly.

"What's Narnia?" Ash seemed even more confused now.

"It's a bit of a long story." Lucy laughed.


	3. Chapter 3

"Come on." Lucy grabbed Ash's arm without thinking and started marching in a rather queenly fashion in the direction she hoped lead out of the woods.

"Where are we going?" Ash laughed, his tone somewhere between nervous and amused.

Lucy stopped walking, let go of his arm and turned to face him. "Ash, there's something you should know..." She started to fidget with the tips of her long hair as she tried to find the worlds to explain that she was a 1300 year old queen who was looked upon almost as a saint here in Narnia.

"Lucy, what is it?" Ash noticed Lucy's worried expression and was instantly filled with deep concern. Was something wrong? Why did she seem so frightened?

"I don't know how to tell you this..." Lucy mumbled to her feet. "But I was-I mean I am...I'm a..."

"Queen Lucy is that you?" A little dwarf who'd been out hunting carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows over his right shoulder raced up to her. His beard was red (with strands of gray in it) and his deeply frowned face was very familiar. At least to Lucy it was.

"Trumpkin!" Lucy cried happily. He was a little older than when she'd last seen him. He was clearly beginning to leave his middle aged years behind, he must have been at least in his mid fifties now.

"You got so tall." Trumpkin said in an almost weepy voice.

"Wait, did he just call you 'Queen' Lucy?" Ash's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"That's sort of what I was trying to tell you." Lucy stammered, blushing much harder than she thought possible.

"I'm so confused." Ash muttered, putting his hand to his forehead.

"Who's your majesty's friend?" Trumpkin asked, glancing over at the befuddled young man who was pushing his glasses back up so they didn't slide off his face.

"Oh right." Lucy realized she'd forgotten to introduce them. "Trumpkin, this is Ash," She waved her arm between them in a explaining sort of way. "Ash, meet Trumpkin."

"Pleased to meet you." Ash finally managed to blurt out.

"Like wise." Trumpkin nodded. To Lucy his whispered, "Awful jumpy young chap, isn't he?"

"Welcome back, dear one." A rich deep voice said, a thick golden paw coming out of the nearby thickets.

Lucy started to smile. She knew that voice. It was the voice she'd longed for and ached after for nearly seven years now. Her whole face lit up with radiant joy making her look almost as beautiful as her sister for a moment.

Ash was taken more than a little aback at the beauty of the expression on her face. For about half a second he thought he _was_ looking at Susan until he realized that the face was a completely different character and that the girl in front of him was still Lucy after all.

Whatever thoughts were running through his mind about her at that moment lasted only a manner of seconds-if that-because the next thing he saw took his breath away.

The golden paw was attached to a large glorious Lion. At first Ash thought he was only about the size of any big lion one might find in a zoo, but later he said he was the size of a cart horse, then at other times, the size of an elephant. He never could make up his mind as to the exact measurements of the creature. But what he could tell with certainty was that there was something of a close friendship between Lucy and the Lion.

Lucy after beaming at his golden self for that moment, put down her back pack, raced over to him before Ash could stop her, and threw her arms around his neck, caressing his mane and showering his soft velvet-like nose with kisses. "Oh, Aslan." She murmured happily. "I've missed you so much."

"I have missed you also, Lucy." Aslan said. His breath felt so delightfully warm and ticklish on her left ear and cheek.

Aslan then walked over to Ash who's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Part of him wanted to scream like a girl and make a dash for the nearest tree. The other part of him wanted to meet this Lion, even if it might be the end of him. And besides, this wonderful beast, whom Lucy called by its Turkish name seemed good even if he was not at all safe. So he stood there gaping at Aslan, unable to move his feet which felt as heavy as two stones.

He looked away from Aslan for a moment and glanced at Lucy who mouthed, "Bow." and pretended to make the motions of bowing herself.

"Oh...um, right then." Ash blurted out before getting bowing to the great Lion very awkwardly, almost losing his balance and falling over in the process.

All the same it seemed to please, if not amuse, Aslan who made a sound that was almost purr-like and Ash thought must be the way a beast would laugh if it could. Of course they couldn't. But for some reason, this one could both laugh and talk. He wanted to demand of him how he had learned to speak but thought it would be very disrespectful to do so.

"Welcome son of Adam." Aslan said to Ash.

"Hullo, um...er...Aslan was it?" Ash stammered feeling more and more stupid by the second.

Aslan nodded and shook his shoulders in a shrugging sort of way. Apparently he didn't find Ash as stupid as Ash thought himself to be.

"Aslan." Trumpkin also bowed to him.

Aslan gave the DLF a small smile before turning back to Ash and Lucy. "You have come here for a reason." Aslan told them.

Ash wanted to ask what that reason was but felt like his mouth was dry as dust and his lips were super glued together.

"I've called you and your friend our of your own world into Narnia because I have a task for you both." Aslan looked at Lucy as he spoke these words. "King Caspian is sad because he and his wife have lost their only child. A boy called Rilian. He went missing five years ago today. No one knows what has become of the child. They do not know if he is even still alive. But I assure you, he is. This is the command I lay upon the both of you, that you go and seek this prince until you have brought him back to his parents."

"Oh I get it." Ash said suddenly. "This is a dream." He rolled his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. "I must have fallen asleep on the train, right?"

Lucy shook her head. "No, Ash you don't underst..."

"Alright, someone hit me." Ash said. "It's just a dream anyway."

Lucy sighed and slapped him upside the head a bit harder than she meant to almost knocking off his glasses.

"Ow!" Ash moaned, rubbing the spot she hit. "Fine then, it's not a dream. That's a real headache."

"Sorry." Lucy apologized, blushing again.

Ash shrugged. "It could have been worse."

"Anyway, in order for you both to have good help, you must come with me to Cair Paravel, the home of the king." Aslan told them. "Climb on my back."

Lucy let out a squeal of delight. She loved ridding on Aslan but it was a pleasure that she was rarely given. She'd been only about nine the last time she'd gotten to do this. She tightened her back pack straps securely around her waist so she wouldn't lose it and climbed on.

Ash hesitated for a moment.

"Come on." Lucy offered her hand to help him up. "You'll like this."

"I don't know about this...maybe I should wai-" Both Lucy and Trumpkin (Who had mounted Aslan behind Lucy pulled him up before he could finish protesting.

"Hang on." Aslan told them.

"Hang on to what?" Ash asked, looking very much like he might be sick. "There's nothing to hang on to!"

Lucy leaned back and whisper-suggested holding onto the thick fur, assuring him that Aslan wouldn't mind as long as he was gentle about it.

Ash took her suggestion and felt a little less nervous. It was much nicer to be on a good hearted speeding Lion who would come to a calm steady stop than a cold metal train about to crash into god knows what.

And in spite of any fear he might have had, Ash did have to admit this was a wonderful ride. Lucy had been right. It was far nicer than riding a horse because the gentle pad-paddings of the Lion's paws was more appealing to the ear drums than the sharp clicks of hooves hitting the ground and the lion was swifter and much more graceful than any horse could ever even hope to be.

The scenery was breathtaking as well. This 'Narnia' place was by far the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It made the very nicest places he'd stayed as small child for the holidays seem like fast food joints. It made a tropical island seem colourless. The greatest mountains in our world seemed like little hills compared to the stunning giants of rock masses they were racing past.

After what seemed both only a moment and thousands of years, Aslan came to a stop at large and beautiful castle by a glittering sea that lay to the east.

"Why, it's Cair Paravel." Lucy gasped. "They've gone and rebuilt it!"

"Of course they have." Trumpkin said in a very matter a fact way. "Cair Paravel is the rightful capital of Narnia and when everything was all set and restored they had to go and fix up the ruins."

"It looks just as it did when I lived there." Lucy sighed happily, remembering all the wonderful times she'd had in the golden age when she and her siblings had co-ruled Narnia together.

"Wait you _lived_ there?" Ash gasped feeling like he couldn't take much more of this and yet that he didn't want it to stop.

"Yes." Lucy told him. "Like I said, it's a long story."

" _You_ lived _there_?" He pointed to the castle, unable to wrap his mind around the fact that the little English girl he'd seen grow up was a queen in this place.

"Yes." Lucy said again.

"Really?" Ash asked.

"Is something wrong with him?" Trumpkin asked, beginning to get annoyed.

"No, he's fine." Lucy assured the DLF.

"I will go now." Aslan told them as they started to climb off his back.

Ash got off second after the DLF and figuring Lucy would need some help down lifted up his arms to help her only to realize that she was perfectly comfortable leaping off the Lion's back by herself.

"Oh, Aslan." Lucy pleaded with him. "Do you have to go so soon?" Tears began to form in her eyes. "It's been so long since we last met, at least for me it has been and oh, you haven't even told us how we are to find the young prince."

"I will tell you." Aslan said. "You and Ash must travel to Northern borders of this world ever so far passed the borders your brothers and Caspian fought giants at, where there is a great black castle standing tall and alone in the middle of an enchanted tundra. It will be a long and hard journey but if you work together and do not lose hope you will find your way there. In the castle there will be many things to distract you, do not let this stop you from finding the prince. When you find him, you will know it is he because he will be the only person you shall meet on your travels who will ask you do to something in my name."

"I see Aslan, we'll do that." Lucy agreed.

"We will?" Ash raised an eyebrow. He didn't seem to like the idea very much.

"Yes, of course." Lucy said to him almost angrily.

"Lucy, dear child, will you remember all I have told you?" Aslan checked to be sure.

"Don't worry, I'm taking notes." Trumpkin was writing on a little scroll he had pulled seemingly out of no where.

Aslan laughed a little. "Good, you'll need them. For you shall be their guide, traveling with them watching to make sure no hard comes to these two."

"What? Me?" Trumpkin looked shocked.

"Yes, you." Aslan said.

"Me?" Trumpkin blurted out again.

"Is something wrong with him?" Ash whispered to Lucy.

Lucy shook her head. "No, he's fine."

And with that, Aslan planted a gentle Lion-kiss on Lucy's cheek before bounding away.

"Goodbye." Lucy called softly after him.

"Come now, your majesty." Trumpkin said in a kind voice leading her and Ash to the front doorway of the castle. "Caspian and his Queen will be very pleased to hear that you have come."


	4. Chapter 4

The house was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Or if the person sitting at the kitchen table happened to drop a text book-as Peter did-you would have heard that. When he bend down to pick up the dropped text book, he only got about half way there before the phone rang, pushing the former silence even further away.

Peter picked it up. "Hello?"

"Is this the 'Pevensie' house hold?" a weary but deep voice from the other end asked.

"Yes." Peter told him.

"Lucy Pevensie's family?" The voice double checked to be sure.

"Yes." Peter said this time his tone more concerned than informative. "I'm her brother."

"I'm very sorry to tell you this, but there's been an accident..." In as few words as possible (and there were still an awful lot of them all the same) Peter was told about the railway crash.

Peter's face turned as white as a sheet of paper and he let go of the phone, letting it drop, dangling from the long cord that held it to the kitchen wall Swaying back and forth. He leaned against the wall but it couldn't hold him up. His grief was too heavy. He slid down the wall until his rear hit the floor. Then he buried his face in his hands and didn't come out for a long time.

* * *

Lucy and Ash walked passed the great stone pillars into the throne room.

It was just as Lucy had remembered it only there were now only two thrones and not four. It seemed very strange to have two and not the rightful four. She was smart enough to understand the reason in her mind, that there was only one king and one queen now and having two extra thrones empty all the time wouldn't be very seemly. But in her heart it kept bothering her like a beautiful painting that was only half done and could not be enjoyed properly with out its missing half. Of course she stopped thinking about the thrones when she caught sight of the people sitting there. Caspian and the star's daughter who'd married him and become queen.

Ash wasn't thinking about thrones. He didn't even know that Lucy's siblings had co-ruled with her as she hadn't yet found the time to tell him the story. He was transfixed by the glittering stain-glass roof above him. It was so detailed and elegant. He only stopped looking at it when halfway into the room, he tripped over his own two feet and felt flat on his face.

"Ash, are you alright?" Lucy ran back down to where he'd fallen and helped him up. "Nothing hurt?"

"Just my pride." He laughed it off good-naturedly.

"Lucy!" Caspian called out, his arms open wide as if expecting her to rush over and embrace him.

After Ash was back on his feet, Lucy did race over into her old friend's arms, very pleased to see him again.

"So good to see you, Lucy." Caspian beamed at her. "You've gotten so much older and better looking." He lowered his voice and added, "And that whole constantly runny nose thing cleared up I see."

She laughed at his jab and then looked up at him realizing that he was almost middle aged now. His black hair had become more of a salt-and-pepper colour in some patches and he had frown lines that hadn't been there the last time she'd seen him.

"I've missed you." was all she could think to say before she was caught up in another embrace from the side. While she hadn't been as close with the Star's daughter as she had ben with Caspian, there had been something of-for the lack of a better word-a friendship between them all the same.

"Welcome back." She told her.

After much more squealing, joking, smiling, and hugging, Lucy remembered Ash who was standing a ways off, quietly watching the happy reunion.

Lucy called him over. "I'd like you all to meet my good friend, Ash." She told them as he approached.

Caspian shook his hand. "You are most heartily welcome." He assured him.

"It's a pleasure to meet one of Queen Lucy's friends from that other world those children are always coming from in times of great need." The Queen said politely and honestly.

"Come now," Caspian urged them into the dinning room. "You must be hungry, do come and sit down at the head of the table, we'll have the royal cook fix something up for you both."

"I feel like I'm visiting the prime minister." Ash said, mostly to himself as no one other than Lucy had any idea what a prime minister was, as he took a seat at the shiniest wood table he'd ever laid eyes on before.

Trumpkin took a seat next to him and licked his lips as a large sliver serving tray was placed in the middle of the table by a plain-faced but friendly-looking faun.

Ash let out a gasp when the faun walked away and he caught sight of his legs. He leaned over to Lucy who was sitting on his left (Trumpkin was on his right) and whispered, "Did you see that goaty chap who just went by? Isn't he the strangest looking thing you ever saw?"

"Not really." Lucy said. Fauns weren't strange to her. One of the best friends she'd ever had had been a faun. Of course she could understand Ash's surprise and added, "You do get used to them after a very short while."

"Well now, I suppose you ought to tell the king what Aslan has sent you here for." Trumpkin said in a very diplomatic tone of voice.

"Oh yes, to find some lost prince or something." Ash blurted out.

Caspian stopped with his fork half way to his mouth.

"Rilian." His wife uttered in a soft tragic voice.

"What happened?" Lucy asked feeling very much like crying herself even though she'd never known the boy.

"He was two days away from his fifth birthday..." The star's daughter said, unable to hold back the tears that now slid freely down her face. "He went out to play and..." She couldn't finish without breaking into sobs. After five years the pain still hadn't faded.

Caspian put his hand on his wife's shoulder and told the rest of the story himself. "I sent him out with some of the most trusted people of the court because I was busy and he couldn't go out to play by himself. And yet when these returned, they came to me in tears-at the end of the day when I asked them where my son was-claiming they'd turned their backs for one moment and when they looked for him again, he was gone. Just like that. We had search parties everywhere looking for him, day and night. All of Narnia rang with the sound of his name being called. And no one ever found him. Some even lost their lives looking. That was five years ago. After a while I even had to make a proclamation that no one was allowed to look for him. Much as it pained me, I just couldn't put all these lives at stake not even for that dear little boy."

"I suppose we're not allowed to look then, either?" Ash's expression was hopeful and Lucy was overcome with the sudden urge to smack him for it.

"Of course that proclamation doesn't count in your case." Caspian said, surprised that Ash would even come up with such a question. "Aslan himself sent you. We _have_ to let you look or we bring his anger upon us all."

"But is it safe?" Ash asked nervously. "For Lucy, I mean? I'll do it. I feel as if I could-and would-do anything that Lion asked of me. I liked him very much. Except that is, I don't think I could bring myself to put my friend at risk."

All of Lucy's anger melted away as soon as she heard that. Ash wasn't worried about himself. He loved Aslan from the first meeting just as she had, simply in a more cautious way. He cared about her and didn't want her to perish like the others had. Of course he wouldn't want the little sister of the girl he'd been so taken with for years to vanish. But was it simply fear that made him want to keep her safe? Fear of what? of Susan? of Aslan? of her brothers? Or fear of losing his friend? Fear of her safety as a person with no other reason attached? Lucy wasn't sure and trying to figure it out made her feel dizzy.

"I'll be fine." Lucy assured him. "This is the sort of thing a queen is called upon to do in Narnia, you see."

"No I don't." Ash argued. "I don't see at all. Why would they put a young girl in a danger they can't face themselves? I'll do it, like I said, but you shouldn't."

Lucy suddenly found herself thinking of the time when Peter tried to make them all go back home before the war against the White Witch. Ash seemed to be in the same 'it's too dangerous for you' frame of mind that Peter had been in. But Peter hadn't understood how much Narnia needed them then. And Ash didn't fully understand it now either. But maybe he could be made to understand.

"I've been to real battles before." Lucy said, turning in her chair to face Ash. "I think it's time I told you exactly what Narnia means to me."

And so Lucy began to tell him of how she'd first found the world of Narnia through a wardrobe and how Edmund had seen it to but had been misled by an evil witch who turned good creatures who'd never done her any harm into stone. And how she, Peter, and Susan had to go with two good beavers to find Aslan. After she finished that story with Aslan's death and return and the coronation, she started in about how Susan's horn had called them back for the second time and how they put Caspian on the throne.

Caspian, the star's daughter, and Trumpkin had all heard the story before but it was such a good one and Lucy told it so well that they all listened captivated as if hearing it for the first time.

As for Ash, his eyes were so wide Lucy thought they'd fall out of their sockets. He didn't seem able to take in all in at once. He just sat gaping at her, feeling very much as if he was seeing and hearing her for the first time. He'd only ever known her as little Lucy Pevensie but now he was being shown someone else. A Queen Lucy. A Lucy that was part of a story that here in this world was over 1300 years old.

"Unbelievable." Ash muttered when she had finished.

Lucy's face fell when he said that. It wasn't the reaction she'd been hoping for. "You don't believe me?"

"No, I do." Ash said softly. "That's what scares me the most."

"Well if you've had all you both want of supper," Caspian cut in. "Perhaps it would be best if we had someone take you each to a nice bedchamber where you rest up for tomorrow." He looked sadly at Lucy. "I'm afraid we didn't know what your bedroom looked like when you were here or else we would have had if all fixed up just in case you should have ever happened to return. So you'll have to make do with one of the regular guest chambers. I hope it's to your liking."

"I'm sure it'll be lovely." Lucy said supportively as a tall dryad came and took her by the hand, leading her out of the dinning room.

Two fauns and Trumpkin himself showed Ash to the chambers that would be his as long as he stayed with them in Cair Paravel. He gaped at the sheer size of it. It made the biggest hotel suite he'd ever stayed in look like a gas station.

Lucy, in spite of her worries about finding lost Prince Rilian, was enjoying herself very much. She had been given a hot bath and had her hair cleaned and brushed. Then she'd been given a wonderfully comfortable and beautiful Narnian gown to wear. Her old crown had been found among the ruins back when they'd rebuilt the castle and it was given to her now.

As she stood in front of the mirror smoothing out the orange gown and adjusting her crown to keep it from sliding off her head, she heard a knock at the chamber door. "Come in."

The door creaked open and Ash walked in. He was wearing an old fashioned Narnian tunic that had once belonged to Edmund (Any of Peter's old things wouldn't have fit Ash because he had a small frame and even in his early twenties was something of a runt.) paired with dark tights that Caspian had loaned him and brown shoes with bluckles (Also Edmund's).

"Alright, I think this look doesn't work for me." Ash half-joked by way of greeting. He glanced at Lucy's outfit. "It seems to work for you though, you look nice."

He thought that was an understatement though. Sweet little Lucy always 'looked nice'. Now she looked lovely. She really looked like a queen.

"Thank you." Lucy said.

She disagreed with him about Narnian clothes not looking good on him. Given, it would have been better if he could have gotten his own tailor and not have to wear her brother's old tunic but it still looked good on him. Lucy thought he looked much more handsome in Narnian clothes than in the stuff he was given to wear in England. In fact, she even thought that maybe if Susan could see him now, she might have really noticed him, if only for a moment.

"You're welcome." Ash shrugged, not knowing what else to say to her. What did you say to a girl you thought you knew but you didn't really know until today when you found out she was a queen who'd ruled alongside her siblings? Funnily enough, he'd never had that come up before.

* * *

"Edmund Pevensie?" Someone whispered as they tapped him on the shoulder.

Edmund looked up from the library table he had been doing a little bit of studying at only to see a pasty-faced middle aged female library worker standing behind him.

"Yes?" He whispered back, standing up as he spoke.

"You have a phone call." She explained. "At the front desk. This isn't usually allowed but I'm told it's important. Just try to keep your voice down and not disturb the others."

Edmund nodded and followed her to the front desk where a phone was hanging from the wall behind the marble-and-oak blended check in area. He bent down and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Ed?" A familiar male voice sobbed from the other end.

"Pete?" Edmund blurted out. He was the last person he'd been expecting a call from. "What's wrong?"

His elder brother almost never cried. And now was wailing. He was crying so hard that he couldn't tell him straight off what the matter was. He opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was another sob.

"Peter?" Edmund tried again. "What happened?"

"It's Lucy she..." Peter gulped for air so he could at least speak long enough to explain what had happened to his brother.

"'What?" Edmund gasped and put his hand to his mouth. Tears began to roll down his cheeks now too. "I'll be right there."


	5. Chapter 5

"Are you sure you have everything you need?" Caspian double checked as they stood in the royal stables getting two horses ready for Ash and Lucy.

"I think so." Lucy said as she ran her fingers along the side of the soft beaded waist pouch that she'd put all of the former contents of her back pack in. They had food enough (Caspian and his wife had seen to that) and she had all of her dearest treasures in the pouch. The book, the rose, and the glass Lion. She'd also put in her magic cordial and her dagger, both of which had of course been returned to her yesterday. What else did she need?

The royal grooms two of whom were fauns, three talking badgers, and the others all dwarfs, finished brushing the two horses. Their coats now gleamed and they were ready to bear their noble riders.

Ash felt this was a lot of fuss for nothing. Oh, he thought it "Was all well and good" that they made sure the horse was all cleaned up for Lucy, after all she was royalty. But for himself? A geeky boy who still lived with his parents and pinned after a young woman who'd never even look his way? What right did he have to such treatment? Of course it was probably just because Lucy called him her friend and the others were trying to please her, but he had the strangest feeling that these people were the sort who would be kind to anyone who wanted it. Treat anyone like they ruled the world. And because there aren't very many of those sort of people in our world, he found this very strange indeed.

"Do you need a leg up?" Ash asked Lucy so that he didn't feel as though he wasn't saying or doing anything helpful.

"No, I can manage, thanks." Lucy smiled good naturedly, grabbed a hold of the saddle, and swung herself up.

Ash tried to swing himself up onto his own horse but fell backwards landing on his butt. "Ow." He moaned rubbing the sore spot as two dwarfs rushed over to help him up.

Lucy tried to hold back her laugh but it was a vain effort and even when she covered her mouth with her hand, her shaking shoulders gave it away.

"Are you alright?" She managed to say in between laughs.

"Yeah, just great." Ash said as a faun helped him onto his horse.

Lucy noticed Ash's posture was terrible. Like he'd never been on a horse in his life. Which made her wonder if maybe he hadn't. He was also holding the reins wrong and his feet dangled off from size rather than the stirrups where they should have been.

"Ash..." Lucy asked gently. "Do you know what you're doing? I mean, you have ridden horses before right?"

Ash turned a little red in the face and shook his head. "First time."

"You might have spoken up a bit sooner." Laughed Caspian who signaled for the fauns to help Ash back off the horse. "I can't let you go out riding like that. You'll kill yourself."

"What are we going to do with him?" Trumpkin asked as he got on the back of his pony (He was of course too short for a full sided horse).

"Well since we haven't time for riding lessons, he'll have to ride with Queen Lucy." Caspian said practically

Ash sighed and took Lucy's hand as she helped him onto the back of her horse. He wasn't terribly ashamed. He was used to being embarrassed in much worse ways than the kind inquiries of the Narnians. But it was a little unnerving all the same. He must have seemed like such a klutz.

"The boy's a perfect potato sack." One of the less polite dwarfs whispered to a badger who was in ear shot. "He's going to fall right off the second Queen Lucy gets that horse moving."

"Be nice." The badger scolded him. "He's doing the best he can."

"Ash, hold onto Lucy's waist so you don't fall off." Caspian suggest-ordered.

Without protest, Ash slipped his arms around her. Lucy felt her cheeks flush and hoped no one could tell how red she was turning.

It's because a boy's touching you, Lucy told herself in an attempt to calm her screaming nerves, You've never had anyone put their hands on you other than your brothers and it's weird that's all. It's not because you like him or anything.

Her reasoning seemed to work, she felt her cheeks cool down slightly. Although her heart was still beating a little bit faster than she thought it should have and she missed whatever it was Caspian was saying at the moment. She got the vague idea that it was something along the lines of 'good bye and be safe' but if she was asked to repeat his speech word for word, she would have failed miserably.

* * *

The hospital hallways were as long as a subway station and white as a pearl necklace, leaving everyone who wasn't already horribly depressed in a dreadfully bleak mood.

Peter and Edmund sat on the green rubber-like couch just outside of the lobby. They hadn't been allowed to see her yet. They'd gotten no word from the doctor.

Peter glanced up at the red-rimed clock on the wall in front of them. It was already half passed five. They been there for three hours and couldn't get a word about their sister from anyone. Everyone just told them to wait a few moments, then they left and never came back and twenty minutes later, they'd be driven to ask someone else who would do the exact same thing. They didn't even know what room she was in.

Susan had yet to show. Edmund had failed to get in touch with her but he did leave a message with one of her feather-brained friends.

As for their parents, they hadn't arrived yet but Peter had called them and they'd said they were on their way.

It started raining. Although they couldn't see the drops because there weren't any windows nearby, they could hear the water pounding on the roof and the wind rattling on the walls. It was a storm. Unseen to them, Lightning flashed. Thunder boomed. But it didn't phase the Pevensie brothers. Their thoughts were too far away and the storm, no matter how bad it got, couldn't have measured up to the one raging in their hearts.

"I've had enough of this." Edmund said in a determined voice, jumping off the couch as though it was made of hot coals. "They can't just tell us our baby sister has been in an accident and then not even let us see her."

"Sit down, Edmund." Peter said weakly, mostly out of old habit. Edmund could-and would-do whatever he wanted and Peter felt too tired to argue.

Edmund didn't sit down. He marched right over to the front desk and asked for the hundredth time what room Lucy Pevensie was in.

"I don't know sir, the hospital's awful busy today, we'll look it up when we have a chance." Someone told him without even looking up from the chart they were reading.

"Now look here." Edmund snapped. "We've been waiting for hours and..."

"Someone will be right with you." The person with the chart said again.

"I give up!" Edmund cried, throwing his hands in the air and storming off down the hallway.

Peter wondered where he was going but didn't bother to check. He had to stay here and wait for some word about Lucy. He couldn't risk missing anything. He had to know that she was going to be alright.

* * *

Trumpkin on his pony rode up the green hill behind Lucy and Ash. Ash clung a little tighter onto her waist as they went up. He had the most uncomfortable feeling that was going to fall off and break his neck. He wasn't so sure he liked adventures after all. Not that he'd ever thought he'd like them, he just had never been sure. Then again, simply riding on the back of a horse couldn't really be considered an 'adventure' could it?

"Are we going due North?" Ash nervously asked Trumpkin. He leaned down to the pony so that Trumpkin would be more likely to hear him and almost pulled himself and Lucy off the horse by accident. Lucy managed to keep her seat and keep both of them from falling by pushing in with her knees and sitting up straighter.

"Unless North is not the N on the compass, then yes, we're going due north." Trumpkin said sarcastically. Ash's nervous fidgeting and awkward ways were fine when they were back at the castle but it kept slowing them down out here and it was making Trumpkin a bit grumpy.

"What are we looking for again?" Ash asked.

"Prince Rilian?" Trumpkin answered in a very bitter, 'what kind of stupid question is that' sort of tone.

"No, not that. I mean, the place Aslan told us to look for him." Ash explained.

"Oh that. Sorry." Trumpkin realized he'd been a bit unkind. He reached into his saddle bag and pulled out the 'notes' he had taken. "Aslan's orders were to keep going north until we come to a tall black castle in the middle of a tundra."

"Oh, alright then." Ash looked straight ahead and didn't say anything for the rest of the day.

When the day was over they decided to set up camp for the night.

"Gosh, it's cold." Lucy blew on her hands and looked hopefully at the currently unlit fire Ash and Trumpkin were setting up.

"No worries my queen." Trumpkin told her. "We'll have it all set for you in just a few moments." He handed some sticks to Ash. "Here, rub these together over the fire."

Ash did so but after only about five seconds he went, "Ouch!"

"Ash, what's wrong?" Lucy asked.

"Big splinter." Ash moaned. "It's alright." He stuck his finger in his mouth. "It's just a little piece of wood."

"No, let me see it." Lucy insisted, opening her pouch and pulling the diamond bottle of magical cordial out.

"Are you sure you want to waste it on a little thing like a splinter?" Trumpkin asked, raising an eyebrow. He'd heard stories about her eldest brother Peter having to tell her to take it easy with the stuff not even allowing her to take it to common wars after a while. And as he wasn't there to caution her, Trumpkin felt he ought to say something.

"It won't be a little thing if it get's infected." Lucy said in a very practical tone of voice she'd never used before. She shuddered secretly to herself thinking she sounded very much like Susan. But maybe that wasn't such a bad thing at the moment. Yes, Susan had been horrible as of late but having a little bit of her old practicality rub off on Lucy couldn't be all bad. Susan had been a very good lady once and there was always a chance she'd get back to that.

"I guess you're right." Trumpkin gave in so quickly that Lucy was almost frightened of her own success. "Can't have him dying of fever on the way. Aslan wouldn't like that."

Ash rolled his eyes at Trumpkin's comment as Lucy opened the bottle and poured a little red drop on the splinter. It made the swelling go down and though it couldn't make the splinter itself vanish, once the swelling was gone, it popped out rather smoothly and painlessly on its own.

* * *

"Someone was asking about Lucy Pevensie?" A voice said suddenly, snapping Peter out of his thoughts.

Peter looked up to see a tall middle-aged man in a long white smock and a very wrinkled lab coat with a clip board in his right hand and a stethoscope hanging half-hazardly around his neck as though forgotten there. He was tall and very, very thin. He had sandy blond hair and eyes that had probably been very bright once but now were dull and surrounded by extremely thick black rings that were not from make-up. If Peter had been in his right mind and his thoughts had not completely been on Lucy and her well being, he might have shuddered to think that he might grow up to be just like the doctor in front of him if he didn't start taking better care of himself.

"Yes." Peter told him. "You must be the doctor, how is she?"

It just so happened that this doctor had had a little sister growing up who'd died when he was a young man. He felt sorry for Peter and didn't hold back the information any longer.

"Not well." The doctor said gravely. "She's completely unconscious."

"She'll pull through, right?" Peter asked desperately.

"I don't know." The doctor said honestly. "She might. There is hope. You can thank the boy she was traveling with for that."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"Well there was a boy in the crash as well, a young man actually. He saved your sister's life. From what I was told, he threw himself in front of her." The doctor explained.

"Ash." Peter shook his head, feeling more than a little guilty that he hadn't even thought of him at all.

"Yes, I think that was his name." The doctor nodded.

"Was?" Peter gasped. "He didn't...he didn't...die? Please tell me he didn't."

"Oh no, he's alive." The doctor assured him. "But he's in worse condition than your sister because of what he did. Broken nearly all of his ribs on one side."

"Please..." Peter said feeling very small and weak. "Can't I see my sister now?"

The doctor nodded and led him down the hallway into the room where Lucy was.

As soon as he saw her laying in the hospital bed, Peter burst into tears again. He couldn't help it. Something about the way she was laid make her look so much younger than her seventeen years. Her white cheeks were sort of flushed giving, her the appearance of a winter's snow angel. Her lips were slightly curled up as though she was about to smile. And her hair was lose and flowing in fair ripples all the way down.

The worst part was that she didn't look alive at all. She seemed so far away. If not for the wavy lines on the monitor and for the constant but labored breathing coming in and out of her, she might have easily been mistaken for a corpse.

Just as Peter was about to rush over to her bed side, he heard someone screaming his name and turned around to see what the cause of this hubbub was.

It was Susan running towards him. But not Susan as he has last seen her with her hair done up in the most stylish way skipping breakfast to meet up with other stylish young women. Now her hair was down and soaking wet and she had mascara and eyeliner running down the sides of her face. She was out of breath and it was as clear as day that she had run all the way there in the rain.

"Susan!" Peter walked over to her, unable to remember the last time he was actually happy to see her before now. "I didn't think you'd show."

"Lucy's in a bloody coma and you didn't think I'd come?" Susan snapped looking very upset. "What kind of person does that?"

"No one, it's just I...you've been so different lately..." Peter stammered, trying-and failing-to find the right words.

"My friends wouldn't give me a ride because of the stupid weather so I had to run ten miles in the storm of the decade." Susan said her tone getting rather hysterical now. "And what do I find out? That my own brother has no faith in me. Thanks, thanks a lot."

"This isn't all about you." Snapped Peter angrily, unable to keep his emotion bottled up anymore. It felt so good to yell at someone. "Lucy's the one in the hospital. You are so selfish."

"I am not." Susan shouted back. "How can you say that to me?"

"Because it's true." Peter yelled.

"I'm going to ask you to leave if you don't quiet down." The doctor warned them in a tranquil tone of voice before turning around and leaving the room himself.

"How dare you say that to me after all I went through to get here." Susan whisper-shouted.

They would have kept arguing for a while if they hadn't been suddenly interrupted by someone in the next room hurling something at the wall and screaming, "Get out!" At the top of their lungs.

"What was that?" Susan asked nervously. She didn't like the idea of her baby sister being in a hospital that had such awful riots.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Peter said. "This is a good hospital, one of the best in all of London, they don't let just anyone in here."

At that moment, Edmund walked in wearing scrubs and a surgeon mask. He took the mask off and looked at his siblings. "The security around this place isn't very good."

"Dear Aslan." Peter moaned putting his face in his hands and slumping down into a chair.


	6. Chapter 6

After a good quarter hour of mishaps, the camp fire was finally lit and the food Caspian had sent them off with was heated up and spread out in from of them for dinner.

Ash, being very tired from constantly injuring himself, had worked up quite an appetite. He helped himself to such a generous portion that Trumpkin actually cracked a smile and said that the boy might actually get over being such a weakling if he carried on like this in the future.

Lucy secretly took offence to that comment because in her deepest heart of hearts, she had never seen Ash as weakling. Not even in the least. Was he smaller boned than her brothers and Caspian were? Yes. But it was genes, not any fault of his own. Even after half-starving himself at the university, Peter was larger than Ash. And poor Ash who kept house for his mother and was always kept busy couldn't be expected to be as strong as Edmund who had the time to learn sports was, it wasn't reasonable. But all that was beside the point anyway. What made Ash strong wasn't his body. It was his character. The way he treated her family with kindness, the way he always offered to help those in need, the way he never gave up on Susan. Being constantly ignored the way Ash was, would break some men. But not him, he was strong enough for that. However, Lucy couldn't bring herself to say any of this out loud.

After they'd all had their fill, they laid down on the grass to go to sleep. Lucy found she couldn't fall asleep at all and gave up trying.

"Lucy, you asleep yet?" Ash lifted his head up off the ground and looked over at her. He hadn't been able to sleep either.

"No, not yet." Lucy admitted.

"Me either." Ash stated the obvious.

Trumpkin was snoring soundly a few feet away from them. His snoring was funny and caused Lucy to giggle a bit and even Ash had to admit it was sort of funny.

Since nothing short of a bullhorn was going to rouse Trumpkin anyway, they could talk freely without worrying about waking him up by accident.

"What was it like when you ruled here with your siblings?" Ash asked curiously.

"Wonderful." Lucy sighed in a dreamy voice, letting all the memories come back to her in the delightfully cool night air of Narnia.

"Tell me about it." Ash said, propping himself up on his elbows. "What sort of things did you do?"

"Oh all kinds." Lucy said. "Peter and Edmund handled all the big matters like making treaties with other countries and all that. They mostly had Susan and I do the littler stuff. Like settle disputes between some of the country folk when Edmund and Peter couldn't see them right away. But that was only our job, we did lot's of other things in our spare time, fun things. Susan and Peter taught Ed and I how to swim. Susan's top at that as you know. And Mr. Tumnus-a good friend of mine, a faun-lived not to far from the lantern waste-that's where we arrived here this time and where I came from the first time I found Narnia-we always made special trips over to see him."

"It sounds great." Ash said. "You were lucky to have a life like that, even if it did have to come to an end." He paused for a moment and reflected on this realizing he didn't quite understand something. "How did it come to an end?"

"I told you," Lucy said softly. "We fell through the wardrobe back into the professor's house."

"Yes, but there wasn't a wardrobe back there this time was there? Shouldn't it always be there if it's that?" Ash seemed a little confused.

"Maybe it was there and we didn't see it." Lucy said thoughtfully. "Or else, it wasn't. Things aren't always as they seem here in Narnia."

"I've noticed." Ash commented.

They were quiet for a little bit before Ash spoke again adding, "Do you miss them?"

"Who?" Lucy asked.

"Everyone you knew from your time here before the 1300 year gap." Ash said.

"With all my heart." Lucy assured him. "I miss them so much it hurts."

"Hey, I was wondering." A new thought came to him. "You were here for fifteen years, that's a lot of time. Did you ever...I don't know...get married to anyone?" He wondered if he shouldn't have asked such a personal question.

"No." Lucy shook her head and laughed. "Goodness no. We all had suitors-most of them were after Susan-but nothing ever came of it. Both Susan and I did come close to marrying one of our suitors once but that was it."

"What happened?" Ash blurted out before he realized he was getting a bit personal.

Lucy didn't mind. She almost felt she wanted him to know. "Oh with Susan, there was a prince. Prince Rabadash. He was very good to us all when he stayed at Cair Paravel. Peter and Edmund didn't trust him, I didn't either but well, you know how headstrong Susan can be when she sets her mind to something. And she went to visit him, Peter of course made sure Edmund went with her. He wanted to come himself but was kept busy with a giant raid in the north. Well Susan saw in no time that they'd been right and that when he was in his own home, Rabadash was cruel, stupid, and dangerous. Not at all the sort of person she would even consider taking for a husband."

"And yourself?" Ash asked. Noticing a sad expression that came over Lucy's face like a dark cloud, he quickly added, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's alright. I'll tell you." Lucy said in a sad almost distant tone. "There was this prince who came to Cair Paravel one day. I thought he really cared for me he even managed to fool Edmund-which is no easy task let me tell you. But Peter knew there was something wrong. And sure enough there was."

"What was it?" Ash asked feeling sorry for her already even though he hadn't heard the whole story yet.

"He was using me to get to Susan." Lucy explained looking almost bitter for a moment. "She was the one he really wanted. That's actually when I first realized that people thought she was beautiful and that I was just some cute little child who trailed along after her. I didn't like that."

"You're more than just that." Ash insisted although deep down he couldn't help feeling a tad guilty thinking that he'd always seen Lucy Pevensie as 'Susan Pevensie's cute kid sister' himself and the thought that she might not like being seen that way, had never even crossed his mind.

"I thought he loved me." Lucy said softly, rolling over on her back so she could see the stars that hung above them in the sky. "But I was wrong. I can only thank Aslan that Peter found out the truth before it was too late."

"He didn't deserve you." Ash told her.

Lucy smiled at him. It seemed strange that she had found such comfort coming from him. Somehow, even though it was her sister he'd always noticed (Just like everyone else always had) he didn't seem quite like a hypocrite. He seemed like he really meant what he said.

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie finally arrived at the hospital. Mrs. Pevensie was in tears and Mr. Pevensie looked for the first time in his life, old. He shook out the umbrella he was carrying before entering the hallway and fast walking over to the front desk.

"Lucy Pevensie?" Mr. Pevensie said shortly, not because he was angry but because he was so frightened.

"Family only." The person behind the desk yawned.

"I'm her father." Mr. Pevensie growled, getting fed up already.

"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie." The doctor walked up to them looking quiet relieved.

"Is she alright?" Mrs. Pevensie cried out. She couldn't think of anything else besides her poor youngest baby on death's door in desperate need of her mother.

"I have hope that she will pull through but the truth is that right now, it's a toss up." The doctor said gravely. "Come, I'll take you to her."

As soon as Mrs. Pevensie saw her daughter in the hospital bed, she rushed over to her and kissed her forehead. "My poor sweet darling." She wept bitterly gently stroking the side of Lucy's face.

Mr. Pevensie stood in the doorway of the room unable to enter. He found himself more than a little overwhelmed by the dark lonely room with beeping monitors. He looked over at his daughter and wanted to weep just as his wife was but found no tears came. Feeling guilty, he glanced over to his three other children.

Susan was a mess of smudged make-up and hair that had dried funny from the rainwater.

As for Edmund, Mr. Pevensie didn't notice that he was wearing scrubs. What he did notice was that he looked sad. Of course it was to be expected but somehow, for the cheerful trouble maker of a boy to look so very...old...seemed almost unholy. Like an unnatural presence in the room.

But it was looking over at his eldest son that broke Mr. Pevensie into the tears his eyes couldn't quite bring themselves to shed at first.

It was then that he realized that Peter was more like Lucy's father than her brother. It at that very moment he realized all the stress he had put on his oldest boy. He hadn't meant to-honest he hadn't-but over the years, he'd just gotten so very used to Peter shouldering so much of this or that responsibility that he just gave up trying to let him be a normal child. And this was the result. If Lucy shouldn't make it, Mr. Pevensie didn't even want to think about what it would do to Peter.

"Mum, Dad." Susan said weakly, going over to greet them. "You made it."

"We would have been here sooner but I simply couldn't bring myself to get on a train after what happened and some of the roads were flooded because of the storm and oh...oh..." Mrs. Pevensie started crying again.

"Mum, it'll be alright." Edmund walked over and tried to comfort his mother.

"Edmund, what are you wearing?" Mr. Pevensie noticed the scrubs at last.

"Well they wouldn't tell us what room she was in so..." Edmund turned a little red mostly out of mock-embarrassment.

"Please tell me you did not just crash into every room in the hospital." Mr. Pevensie closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

"Uh..." Edmund looked more than a little guilty.

Mr. Pevensie would have given him at talking to for his behavior if he hadn't been so worried about Lucy, who's bed side he was now approaching. Looking into the sweet young face with the curled up peaceful lips, Mr. Pevensie came to yet another terrible realization. He barely knew his youngest child. He knew the older ones well enough. And he had known Lucy very well as a small girl but he knew next to nothing about Lucy the teenager. She didn't make herself heard and seen the way most teenagers did. It wasn't her way. All he really knew was what everyone else knew about her, that she loved lions.

* * *

"Time to wake up." Trumpkin announced to Lucy and Ash who had both been sound asleep.

The two of them woke up at once, stretching and yawning. Lucy brushed the dust out of the corners of her eyes and picked out the grass bits that were stuck in her hair.

"I can't say I like sleeping outside." Ash said in a rather thoughtful tone for such an early hour. "All the boys I went to school with made a fuss about how wonderful camping was. Sleeping under the stars and all that. But I don't think I've missed out on anything so great after all."

"You never went camping?" Lucy asked feeling very surprised. Even Susan had gone camping before. She'd always assumed all children had gone into the woods for a night at least once in their lives.

"No." Ash shrugged. "This would be my first time."

Lucy nodded and started to stand up. "It's nice not to have to make a bed but that's probably the only upside to it."

Ash agreed with her on that one. "And it's so damp."

"I'm fairly covered in dew." Lucy shivered, trying to shake the little drops off the side of her dress.

Trumpkin started packing everything away so they could start off again.

"Could I help?" Ash offered.

"Thorns and thunderbolts." Trumpkin grumped. "I dare say your kind of help isn't really much help at all. You fall over things and hurt yourself far too easily."

Lucy having been silent through most of Trumpkin's snippy jeers at Ash up until this point had had more than enough and presently snapped. "Look here," Her tone was more than a little cross. "You're being perfectly beastly Trumpkin. What would my brother, the high king, say if he heard you giving silly lectures and insults like some goose-cap kitchen maid?"

"Whoa." Ash blurted out. He'd never heard Lucy so upset before. She rarely raised her voice. And to Trumpkin-whom she was so fond of-of all people. But he felt that Trumpkin hadn't been quite so bad as Lucy was making out and felt inclined to cut in with, "It's alright, Lucy. I don't mind his kind of jaw. It's harmless."

"I guess so." Lucy gave in, calming down a bit.

"I haven't been as kind as I ought to be to a friend of the kings and queens of old." Trumpkin admitted. "I have been rather foolish to do so. I'll try to improve. In the meantime you both should go down to that nice creek over there and freshen up while I take care of things over there."

They didn't need asking twice. The two of them rushed over to the creek as quickly as their legs would carry them.

Ash cupped water in his hands and splashed it onto his face. "Ah." He sighed contently as Lucy started talking off her shoes and stockings so she could put her feet in.

Lucy seemed a little quiet. Sad, even. Ash wasn't sure why. It couldn't be about her brief argument with Trumpkin, there were no hard feelings in that. They were on the Lion's errand and up until now she had seemed more than pleased by that. Why the sudden glumness?

"Lucy, are you alright?" Ash asked gently.

"What?" Her thoughts had been far away and she'd forgotten about Ash for a moment. "Oh, I'm fine. Really. I was just thinking about my family. I worry about them sometimes...especially Peter."

"Oh." Ash didn't know what else to say. He wanted to say something comforting and wise that would make her smile again but nothing useful came to mind.

Lucy started to unbutton the front of her dress.

"Lucy Pevensie, what are you doing?" Ash laughed nervously, trying not to blush.

"I'm going in." Lucy pointed her chin at the creek.

"Alright but why are you undressing?" Ash wrinkled his forehead.

Lucy blushed a little realizing what he meant. "I'm just taking off the top frock."

"Oh good." Ash breathed a sigh of relief feeling more than a little stupid for thinking otherwise even for a moment.

"What did you think I was doing?" Lucy looked puzzled.

"Nothing." Ash's face turned the colour of an over ripe tomato.

"Alright then." Lucy said, lowering herself into the water. "Are you coming in?"

Ash nodded and started to take off his tunic.

Suddenly Lucy realized she'd never seen him without a shirt on before.

Glancing shyly at one another as they wadded through the water, it's hard to say who felt the most awkward.

* * *

"Hey Pete..." Edmund nudged his brother. "Come on."

"Come on where?" Peter asked as Edmund handed him a pair of scrubs and a mask.

Susan was in the bathroom and their parents were down stairs getting some coffee so it was only the two of them in the room with Lucy.

"Let's go see Ash." Edmund said. "He saved her life, Peter."

"I know." Peter said.

"The least we can do is go see him." Edmund added.

"Alright but why are you giving me this?" Peter looked down at the green clothing as though it was toxic waste.

"Oh well no one gets in other than doctors or family." Edmund explained.

"We're not his family." Peter reminded him.

Edmund nodded and his eyebrows went up.

"No, no, no." Peter insisted throwing his hands in the air. "You are not talking me into this."

Moments later Peter and Edmund walked down the hallway dressed in the scrubs and masks headed for the room Ash was in.

"What is this power you have over me?" Peter grumped as he followed close behind his brother.

"It's a gift." Edmund shrugged.


	7. Chapter 7

After climbing out of the creek and drying off, Ash and Lucy mounted their horse again.

Lucy's stomach felt like it was doing summersaults when Ash put his arms around her waist. She wondered why she couldn't get used to this. Why did she feel so strange every time he touched her? They'd ridden like this yesterday so shouldn't she have gotten used to the feeling by now?

"Are you alright your majesty?" Trumpkin asked as he climbed on his pony. "You don't look so well."

"I'm fine." Lucy blurted out hastily, giving her horse a little kick to let it know it was time to start trotting.

As they rode on for hours passed more scenery than there is room in this story to describe, the patches of green got less and less and there were more and more patches of ice and snow. At first these patches were no bigger than a hen's egg and they were scattered about every which way. Then they were bigger, about the size of boulders. Then they were size of hills. Needless to say, it made them all feel much colder and Trumpkin saw to it that they all put on the warm wool cloaks, gloves, and hats that Caspian's wife had packed for them.

"Brr." Ash could see his breath. It was as thick as a storm cloud in this chilly air.

Trumpkin agreed with him. "Most cold." He took his gloved hands off the reins for a moment and rubbed them together.

"I hope poor Rilian's alright." Lucy said, thinking of how frightening the whole thing must have been for the little prince. Whomever took him must have been very aloof and powerful to keep him away from his parents for all these years.

"As do I." Trumpkin sighed. "He was such a sweet little boy." A few tears pricked Trumpkin's eyes but he didn't dare let them out because the cold might freeze them to his face. "He was such a lovely little baby too. His mother thought the child could do no wrong. Oh that blessed child, he was so good tempered. Even I couldn't help loving him."

"I wish Aslan had told us what happened to the chap." Ash said.

"Perhaps he wants us to find out on our own." Lucy said pensively.

* * *

"Ed, let's go back, you clearly don't know what room he's in." Peter pleaded with him.

"No. It must be this one coming up." Edmund said.

"The other fifteen rooms we just crashed into were practice I presume?" Peter sneered dryly.

"Come on." Edmund grabbed his arm. "If this isn't his room I'll do your chores for a month."

"I don't live at home anymore." Peter reminded him.

"In that case I'll make it two months." Edmund tugged on his arm.

"Edmund!" Peter frowned at him.

"I'll clean your dorm room for a week." Edmund offered.

Peter thought it over. "Three weeks."

"Two." Edmund frowned.

"Fine." Peter gave in, allowing Edmund to drag him into the room.

There were no visitors and there were no lights on. All the light in the room came from the buttons on the monitors. In the bed there was a familiar young man. He wasn't smiling like Lucy was but there was something of a peaceful almost surprised look on his face. He had a few scratches on his forehead and a bandage or two around his middle (like a cast for the broken ribs).

"Finally found the right room." Edmund said softly.

"Yeah." Peter felt a lump coming to his throat. This had happened because Ash had selflessly thrown himself in harm's way to safe Lucy. He wished he could talk to him. He wanted to tell him how grateful he was for what he had done. "When he comes out of this, remind me to thank him."

"Why wait?" Edmund said. He looked down at Ash. "Thanks. Thanks for saving our little sister's life."

"What he said." Peter added pointing his chin towards Edmund as if Ash was awake and could see and hear them.

"Ah, there you are!" Edmund and Peter felt someone grab them by the shoulders.

It was a doctor that they hadn't seen before.

"Busted." Edmund gulped.

Peter cringed expecting to be yanked out of the room and yelled at for their disregard for the hospital rules.

Strangely enough though, this doctor looked very happy to see them. "Am I glad I found you both."

"Well you found us." Edmund fake-grinned at him and tried to walk away. "And we'll be leaving now."

The doctor grabbed his collar and pulled him back before he could make it out of the room. "Come on, we've got a big job ahead of us." He started nudging them out of the room, down the hall, down a few stair cases, and finally into another wing of the hospital.

"I am so happy I found you both." The doctor said again as he threw open some heavy doors and motioned for them to go in.

Peter and Edmund glanced at each other and shrugged. What was the worse that could happen?

"I thought I was going to have to deliver this woman's baby all by myself." He added beaming at them.

"What?" Peter and Edmund gasped at the same time. They wanted to flee but the heavy doors swung closed and there was no way out.

* * *

"Good heavens!" Ash exclaimed as they approached a what looked like a low valley surrounded by tall ice mountains so large and clear they looked like they were made of glass.

The sun shone on the ice but wasn't hot enough to melt it. All it could do was shine on it making it glitter like fairy-dust, shooting walls of rainbow lights circling the frozen valley.

"It's so beautiful." Lucy mumbled feeling as though she really must speak in whispers in this place. It was elegant almost to giving itself a holy appearance.

Ash felt rather afraid of it. "Well it's not the tundra." He said quickly. "It's not what we're looking for. We needn't go through it."

"But it's due North." Trumpkin told him gravely. "We must go through it. To go around it would lead us away to the east. And Aslan said nothing about going east."

"But is it wrong?" Ash asked not caring for once if he sounded like a coward. "Aslan never said we had to stay on the north path did he? We can go east now and then head north once we're away from this place."

"I don't think it's such a good idea to do that." Trumpkin said. "And I suppose we're not risking as much as we're making out. It's only a little bit of ice when all's said and done."

"He's right." Lucy sighed. "We'll just keep going this way."

Ash pressed his lips together and nodded.

After a while, riding through the icy path got too difficult. Ash and Lucy's horse and Trumpkin's pony kept slipping almost knocking their riders off countless times. Finally there was nothing for it but to get off and walk, leading the horse and pony by their bridles.

Because he was the smallest, Trumpkin walked in front of them testing out the ground to make sure it was safe to walk on. the way the ice was in some parts, you couldn't tell if was really land or a frozen lake that might crack open at the first hard foot fall that was made on it.

Leading Trumpkin's pony, Ash trailed behind Lucy as she pulled the horse along. "Steady." She whispered to comfort the horse, reaching out and stroking its neck tenderly.

Ash tried to comfort the pony who was not behaving himself at all and was constantly snorting and trying to pull away from Ash's grip. "There, there." He gave the pony a pat that he meant to be gentle but was really more annoying to the little steed than it was consoling. In the end the little fellow got fed up and bit Ash in the butt to show his disapproval of being led around by someone who clearly didn't know what he was doing.

Ash let out a yelp. "Ow."

"Are you alright?" Lucy spun around nearly slipping on the ice before Trumpkin spun around just as quickly-but without falling-and caught her waist so that she stood upright.

"No." Ash pouted once he was sure Lucy wasn't hurt. "That stupid pony just bit me in the butt!"

"I'm sure he didn't mean it." Lucy tried.

Ash glared at the pony. "He's lucky he isn't a _talking_ pony." Lucy had explained the Aslan-given difference between the talking and non-talking beasts to him earlier and he understood it reasonably well.

The pony snorted indifferently and looked over at Trumpkin with a glower of deep disapproval as if in it's little pony heart it knew that Trumpkin's not riding was the reason Ash was leading him around.

"My butt hurts." Ash whimpered unable to take it calmly any longer.

Lucy sighed and reached for her diamond cordial bottle.

Realizing how seriously Lucy took his pain, Ash shook his head. "No thanks. It's not all that bad, I guess." He lied. "It's not worth wasting that on."

Lucy smiled at him. "I think you should take a drop."

"I think the lad needs the whole thing." Trumpkin chuckled before Lucy glared at him. He quickly added, "Sorry."

"Thanks." Ash smiled at her as she handed him the bottle.

Reaching for the bottle, his fingers brushed against hers. Lucy pulled her hand away so quickly that the bottle fell on the ground. If it had been made of glass it would have shattered on the ice below but thankfully, diamond didn't break as easily.

"I'm sorry." Lucy blurted out looking at the bottle on the ground and then back up at Ash.

"It's fine." Ash bent down to pick it up. He gave her a concerned glance. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Lucy said wondering why she suddenly felt tears coming to her eyes. She turned away from him and went back to leading the horse.

Trumpkin realized what very well might be happening between them and smiled to himself. He wouldn't say anything. He wasn't a busy body and it wasn't for him to interfere with. All the same, he couldn't help but wonder if his guess was right. If Queen Lucy the Valliant was really starting to fall in love with Ash.

* * *

"Alright." The doctor told Edmund handing him a pouch the same colour as the scrubs they were all wearing. "Hold this."

"Here, you take it." Edmund tossed it to Peter.

"No way." Peter shoved it back at him. This was all Edmund's fault anyway. He glanced over at the woman in labor who was screaming bloody murder.

"This is all my husband's fault." She bawled dramatically. "He did this to me."

Edmund took a step behind Peter. "Pete, I'm scared."

"Oh dry up." Peter gulped and tried to sound brave even though he was more than a little freaked out himself.

"Alright, push." The doctor told the woman.

"Ahhhhh!" The woman started screaming even louder even though Peter and Edmund didn't think that was possible.

"Alright, come on you two, help out." The doctor said, realizing that they were just standing in the corner looking horrified and tossing the pouch he'd handed them back and forth like a game of hot potato.

Peter took a deep breath and stepped forward. He could do this, it wasn't that bad. A woman giving birth was perfectly natural. Really, he was behaving like a child. Here he was at 22 reacting like a six year old. What would mum say if she could see him now? (She probably would have scolded him for getting himself into that situation to begin with but that's wasn't really the point).

"You too." The doctor said to Edmund, getting a little annoyed with the person he assumed was supposed to work for him.

Edmund looked at the screaming woman again, took a step back and cringed "I'd rather not."

* * *

"It's getting dark." Trumpkin noted as the last remains of the sunlight slipped behind the most distant ice mountain of them all.

"Where should we set up camp?" Ash asked him.

"Well we can't sleep on the ice." Trumpkin sighed looking around the bleak valley hoping for a decent patch of normal ground or even the smallest grassy area. It was in vain. There wasn't a single blade of grass to be found with in ten miles and none of the ground here looked the least bit stable.

"What's that?" Lucy said, pointing of a large rock mass that seemed to be made of stone rather than ice. It had what looked like a good-sized entrance and it seemed dry enough.

"That's camp." Ash said cheerfully.

"I don't know." Trumpkin clicked his tongue. "Might not be best. Might be someone's home."

"But they'll let us stay-for Aslan's sake-won't they?" Ash said in such a simple innocent tone that made him seem much younger than he was.

"If they respect Aslan, they'd let us stay." Trumpkin explained. "And that's only _if_. who's to say what sort of creature might live in these parts. And why should he be on the side of Aslan?"

"I see." Ash said grimly.

"Don't despair." Trumpkin told him. "We'll go and check it out to be sure. We might be fortunate and find that it's vacant and that we're more than welcome to it."

Trumpkin turned out to be right. There was no creature dead or alive in the cave nor were their any signs that anyone had ever lived there at all. And yet, it wasn't a bad place. The wind didn't blow out the nice little fire they'd managed to set up (Ash even ended up helping without hurting himself). And it didn't leak at all and it was well being very cold, not quite so cold in there as it was outside.

"I say, isn't this cave due north?" Lucy said suddenly,

"Yes," Said Trumpkin, checking his compass as he spoke. "It is."

"So you mean if we had gone east we wouldn't have made it here at all?" Lucy said in a thoughtful tone.

"I suppose such." Trumpkin said as he took bite of the supper they'd spread out for themselves.

"I'm awful sorry I asked for us not to come this way, Lucy." Ash told her.

"Don't worry about it." Lucy smiled at him.

For a while they sat in complete silence listening to the roaring howl of the wind until Trumpkin said they all ought to get some sleep.

"It's too cold to sleep." Ash said in a matter-a-fact tone of voice.

"No worries for you two." Trumpkin shrugged. "You can sleep back-to-back and keep warm. I'm the one who should have to worry about being too cold to sleep.

Lucy didn't much like this arrangement. Yes, sleeping with her back against Ash's did make her much warmer than she would have been otherwise. But it also made her feel so strange. It was a sort of strangeness she couldn't name and that annoyed her deeply. She couldn't explain-not even to herself-what she was feeling. She didn't understand why she felt such a different kind of warmth sleeping so close to him. She wasn't sure if she liked this feeling-whatever it was-or else hated it. Ash and Trumpkin slept soundly but it was a wonder that Lucy was finally able to calm down and fall asleep herself.

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie were now searching the hospital for their sons.

They'd asked Susan but she said she hadn't seen them since she'd gotten up to go to the bathroom.

"Where could they possibly have gone?" Mrs. Pevensie said feeling rather grumpy due to a headache that had come from all that crying and worrying.

"Knowing Edmund, anywhere." Mr. Pevensie knew that Edmund wasn't the sort to turn around because of a simple 'Do Not Enter' sign.

They happened to walk past a room where behind closed doors a woman was in labor. She was screaming and it sounded like one of the 'doctors' was screaming too.

"Phew, it's over!" A voice that sounded like Edmund's said in a relieved voice.

"By the Lion's mane! Look, there's another one!" A voice that sounded like Peter's cried out. "Twins!"

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Edmund's voice exclaimed.


	8. Chapter 8

A thin stream of sunlight poured in through one of the few openings in the cave, landing on Lucy's right eyelid, waking her up. She yawned and sat up.

Ash, feeling cold on his back now that she wasn't laying with her own back pressed against it, shivered, opened his eyes and sat up.

"Good morning." Trumpkin greeted them,

"Morning." Muttered Ash.

"Good morning." Lucy yawned again, rubbing her eyes.

Trumpkin took out some things for their breakfast and spread them out on a blanket. "Let's eat and be on our way."

After breakfast it was time to lead the horse and pony through the rest of the ice valley.

"You take the horse this time." Lucy said to Ash, grabbing hold of the pony's bridle. "I'll take the pony and keep him calm."

Ash made no objections and started to lead the horse behind Lucy and Trumpkin.

After about an hour's walk, they found themselves at last, at the end of the ice valley.

"I'm so glad we're through with that place." Ash confessed as they came out through the other end. There was still snow everywhere but at least the ground under it was earth and not made completely of ice.

"I'm happy we can mount again." Trumpkin said, taking the pony back from Lucy and climbing onto its back. The pony seemed pleased too and stopped snorting and huffing.

As she climbed onto the horse, Lucy tried very hard to prepare herself for the feeling of Ash's arms around her waist. Not that it was any real use in the end because she still felt butterflies in her stomach as soon as he made contact with her.

* * *

"Alright, so next time someone saves Lucy's life and ends up in the hospital, what are we not going to do?" Peter asked Edmund, giving him a stern look as they walked down the hospital hallway (In their regular clothes again) heading back to Lucy's room.

"Dress up as doctors and sneak in to see him?" Edmund said in a guilty, weary voice.

"That's right." Peter told him firmly. "Because we could end up in delivery room helping some lady we don't even know give birth."

"What were the odds?" Edmund said as they neared the doorway of Lucy's room. "I mean of all the people..."

"Shh..." Peter cut him off. "Listen."

"Listen to what?" Edmund asked.

"Do you hear that?" Peter whispered.

"Hear what?" Edmund didn't know what he was talking about.

"Someone's singing." Peter whisper-explained.

"It's a hospital, Pete." Edmund reminded him. "People always sing to the sick."

"Not like this." Peter a small smile crept onto his face as he spoke, straining himself to listen more closely. "It's coming from Lucy's room."

"Do you hear the words?" Edmund gasped, leaning into the wood of the door. "About a witch who made it always winter and a Lion dying and coming back to life? And four Kings and Queens? I know that song!"

"Of course you do." Peter beamed at him. "Susan and I used to sing you and Lucy to sleep with it every night in Cair Paravel when you were younger. Susan and Lucy used to sing it for Corin whenever he stayed with us. King Lune liked it so much that he taught it to his whole court."

"Wasn't it Susan that wrote that song to begin with?" Edmund raised an eyebrow at his brother.

Peter nodded. He could feel tears pricking his eyes as Edmund opened the door just a crack so they could peer in.

Sure enough, there sat Susan, gently holding Lucy's hand and singing the old Narnian song in a soft sweet tone so as not to bother anyone just low enough for Lucy to hear.

As she reached the third verse, her voice started to crack. She was holding back a sob and finally couldn't sing through it anymore. She stopped mid-word and started to cry.

Edmund looked over at Peter who nodded. He knew what he had in mind.

As Edmund entered the room, still unnoticed by Susan, he continued the song where Susan had left off.

Susan gasped and turned to face him. She didn't look like the strange young woman who'd lived in their house for the past couple of years. She'd washed off all her extra make-up in the bathroom (She had gotten tired of wandering around with long streams of black running down her face) and she was changed into something dry, that someone had dropped by the house to pick up for her. It was one of her old things that she hadn't worn in years but still fit into. She looked like their sister again. And singing that song, she sounded like her too.

Edmund stopped singing when he reached the chorus, realizing he had forgotten part of it.

Peter remembered it and sang the missing part.

Susan stood up and threw herself into her brothers open arms. They both hugged her tightly. She clung to them in a way she hadn't done since she was quite small. She wished they'd never let go. She wondered why she had pulled away from their affections so many times recently. Why had she treated them the way she had? Worst of all, why had she done that to Lucy? To sweet, giving, wonderful, loving, Lucy. Who now laid in a coma in front of them. Whom they might never see alive and awake again? Why had she wasted all this time?

"You still believe." Edmund whispered happily.

"Believe in what?" Susan asked so softly they could just barely hear her.

"Narnia." Edmund said, letting go of her while she still clung to Peter for a moment longer before he let go too. "I thought you didn't believe."

Susan's cheeks turned red, unwilling to admit her belief. "I don't...It was just a game we played as children...I don't even remember it all that well..." She didn't seem very convincing, not even to herself.

"And yet, you remember the song." Peter teased. "How does it go again?"

Susan shook her head, unwiling to give in.

"Yes you even got the first part about the giant iron tree in the woods right." Edmund said, winking at Peter before turning back to Susan who blurted out,

"It was a lamppost not an iron tree. That's why we called it the lantern-waste."

"Really?" Edmund widened his eyes with faux-surprise.

Realizing the way both of her brother's were grinning at her now, Susan frowned at them. "Hey, you tricked me."

"Did we?" Peter tried not to laugh.

Desperate to change the subject, Susan asked, "Where were you two just now?"

"Um..." Peter wasn't sure if he should tell her about that.

"Isn't it nice when silbings hug?" Edmund tried to hug her again so as to change the subject.

"Get off me." Susan shoved him away. There was such a thing as too much affection after all.

* * *

Lucy suddenly laughed without any apparent reason.

"Queen Lucy, what is so funny?" Trumpkin asked her, leaning back on his pony so he could face her a little.

"I don't know." Lucy's eyebrows sunk lower in deep confusion. "I just had the strangest feeling that I just heard something funny."

"Alrighty then." Ash shrugged.

"Ash, are you singing?" Lucy asked, turning her neck to face him and almost banging into his head by mistake.

"No." Ash moved his head back and looked at her with confused expression. What in the world was she talking about? He hadn't uttered a single word in at least twenty minutes never mind, sung anything.

"But I could swear I just heard someone singing." Lucy told him.

"Maybe it was the DLF." Ash suggested.

Trumpkin shook his head. "I do _not_ sing." He said firmly.

"How strange." Lucy said softly, mostly to herself.

* * *

"Come on." Mrs. Pevensie said putting her hand on Peter's shoulder. "It's time to go. Visiting hours are over."

The moments of laughter with his two remaining siblings had ended hours ago. It was strange to feel so happy while Lucy was hurt. But after that moment of happiness, it was as if nothing had ever happened. Peter found himself plunged back into despair now. As if all that laughter and singing had happened to someone else. Lucy didn't seem to be getting any better. And yes, it had only been one day but it had been one day too many. What if she didn't pull through? What if this was the end? Could he really still smile and laugh with Edmund and Susan some times? He knew Lucy would want him to be happy but it felt like a disloyalty all the same. He felt numb now. He couldn't feel tears or pain but he couldn't feel his family's love and comfort either. He couldn't go home with them now. It wasn't home without Lucy anyway.

"I'll stay." He told them in a weary voice as he pushed back on the arm rest of the chair he was sitting in.

"You can't." His mother said. "We all have to go home now. The hospital wont let you stay."

The doctor must have sensed his anguish. "I think just this once we could make an exception."

"Thank you, doctor." Mr. Pevensie said.

"See you both tomorrow." Edmund said to Peter. "And call if there's any..."

"I will." Peter promised.

"Here." Susan handed Peter a granola bar she'd gotten from the vending machine. "You have to eat something and I know you aren't going to move from this spot so..."

"Thanks, Su." Peter smiled at her, placing the foil-wrapped bar on the table next to Lucy's bed. "I'll eat it later."

* * *

"You'll eat what later?" Lucy asked Ash.

"What are you talking about?" Ash laughed.

"You just said, 'I'll eat it later'." Lucy frowned at him.

"I didn't say anything, Lucy." Ash told her.

"Are you sure?" Lucy took on hand off the reins and rubbed her forehead.

"Yes." Ash said.

"I'm sorry." Lucy apologized. "I'm just not feeling so well."

"Maybe we should stop for a moment and give her something to drink." Ash suggested. "She might be dehydrated."

"I guess I do feel a little thirsty." Lucy agreed, as Ash let go of her, slipped down from the saddle and helped her off the horse.

Once she was on the ground, he brushed some snow off of a nearby log for her to sit on.

Trumpkin took out one of the skin bottles off water that Caspian had packed for them and held it up so Lucy could drink from it.

"There." Trumpkin said, putting the water away again. "Feeling any better?"

"A little." Lucy gave them a weak smile. "But I think I need to rest for a bit longer."

"Very well." Trumpkin nodded taking a seat beside her. "No hurry."

Lucy turned very white and Ash noticed that she looked more than a little bewildered.

"Lucy?" He asked nervously.

She closed her eyes and fell backwards off the log.

"She's fainted!" Gasped Trumpkin.

* * *

In the hospital bed, Lucy Pevensie's fingers tightened around her eldest brother's hand. He'd fallen asleep but still held her hand in his. He felt the sudden squeeze and woke up.

"Lu?" He gasped.

Lucy felt very unwell. Her head ached, so many parts of her body felt sore, and her eyelids were so very heavy. She managed to open them just a little and saw Peter standing above her looking somewhere between frightened and hopeful. All around him everything was white and she thought she could hear the faint sound of beeping.

Peter could see Lucy's eyes opening more and more. She was waking up! She was clinging more tightly to his hand now. Maybe she was going to pull through after all.

But just as suddenly as the miracle had happened, it faded away. Lucy's hand stopped squeezing his and her eyes started to shut again. She was quietly slipping back into unconsciousness.

Peter's numb feeling wore off and he started to cry again. She wasn't waking up after all.

Lucy felt three of his tears land on her forehead before she slipped away into complete blackness.

* * *

When Lucy could feel anything again, she felt a hand nearby her own. She reached for it and squeezed it. She didn't feel sore or in pain anymore. She felt perfectly fine other than being a little dazed. Her eyelids started to flutter open. She could just make out the faint outlines of a light-haired boy.

"Peter?" She murmured before the blur in front of her eyes cleared.

"No." A voice that certainly did not sound like Peter's said. "Lucy, it's me, Ash."

"Ash?" Lucy could have sworn that a second ago it was Peter that was hovering over her. But now he was gone and Ash was there. She realized it was also Ash's hand that she was holding now and quickly let go.

"Thanks be to the Lion." Trumpkin said, his voice fairly loaded with relief.

"What happened?" Lucy put a hand to her forehead as she sat up.

"You fainted." Ash said unexpectedly pulling her into a hug. "I was so worried."

"Are you better now, your Majesty?" Trumpkin asked to be sure.

Lucy nodded and pulled herself away from Ash. "Yes, I'm fine."

Although deep down she wasn't sure she was fine at all. She couldn't shake the feeling that in another world and time, she was dying.


	9. Chapter 9

That night, Lucy, Ash, and Trumpkin were not fortunate enough to find another cave to sleep in so they were forced to finally give in and set up three tents on the cold ground. One for each of them. Most of the blankets they could spare were given to Lucy because she was a girl as well as a queen. She protested of course but it was of no real use in the end. They insisted that she take most of the blankets and refused to share her tent with her because she was a proper lady and ought to have her own place whenever possible.

The only comfort Lucy found in being alone in the tent (which Ash had managed to help Trumpkin set up without any serious injury and only falling over once) was that she wouldn't have to have to sleep back to back with Ash and feel her cheeks burning and her stomach flopping over restlessly all night. She might actually get some sleep tonight. Or so she thought.

But the howl of the wind seemed much louder than usual and both Trumpkin and Ash's tents felt so strangely far away even though they were only mere inches apart from her own. Without even knowing why, Lucy felt tears filling her eyes and sliding down her cheeks like rain. In an attempt to make herself stop weeping, she reached into her pouch and pulled out the Peter's gift. She gingerly slid open the cover and started turning the pages. But rather than find comfort, she only made herself cry harder. She put the book back in it's place. Doing so, her hand brushed against Ash's yellow rose. Her suddenly trembling fingers pulled it out and her thumb rubbed against it. She remembered the sad look on his face when he'd said, "Could you give her this for me?"

Susan hadn't wanted it. But it was more than the flower that Susan had rejected. What she really meant was that she didn't want Ash. No amount of effort on his part was going to change her mind. She didn't love him and she never would. It was at that moment that Lucy realized how different she and her sister really were. The one person that Susan could never love, was the person Lucy realized she had unwittingly fallen in love with herself.

Realizing this was no great comfort to her though. It served only to make her feel even worse. After all, she knew perfectly well that she had no chance what-so-ever with Ash. Susan was the one he'd fallen for. He had seen the lovely Susan sitting by herself at school and decided to befriend her. She didn't want his attention and constantly ignored him. But his affections were unchangeable. He never went away. Surely no one with that sort of steadfast faithfulness would change his mind and allow himself to love the sister of the young woman he worked so hard to impress.

Suddenly the flap of the tent opened.

"Ash?" Lucy blurted out.

"No your majesty, it's me." Trumpkin entered the tent.

"Oh, Hullo." Lucy tried to wipe away her tears and hide the rose before Trumpkin noticed. Finding no place to put the rose, she sat on it.

"You've been crying." It would take more than a three second cover up to hide Lucy's feelings.

She didn't bother lying after all. She simply nodded.

"What's wrong?" Trumpkin took a seat beside her.

"Everything." Lucy sighed, pulling the rose out from under her behind and showing it to Trumpkin.

"Nice flower." Was all he said.

"Yes, it is." Lucy said looking at it with more warmth in her eyes than some parents look at their own children with.

"Ash gave it to you?" Trumpkin asked.

Lucy shook her head. "Susan."

"Queen Susan gave it to you?" Trumpkin looked confused.

"No, no, no." Lucy found that in spite of her sadness, she had a slight urge to laugh and had to bite her lip right after she finished speaking to avoid doing so. "Ash gave it to me, to give to Susan."

"Why?" Trumpkin asked.

"Because," Lucy answered her eyes looking much sadder now and any laughter had vanished. "Ash loves Susan."

"Then why do you have it?" Trumpkin said, looking down at the yellow rose.

"Because Susan doesn't love him back." Lucy felt a bit angry now. She wanted him to be happy and if Susan would only notice him, he might be.

"Oh..." Trumpkin decided this was one time when maybe he should say something even though it had nothing to do with him. True, doing so was against his nature, but Lucy needed someone to confide in. "Well since she doesn't care for him in that way..." He paused for a moment and put his hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Maybe you should tell him that you do."

"What?" Was Trumpkin reading her mind or simply insane? She jumped away from him and pulled herself close to the other end of the tent.

"Your majesty, excuse me for offending you. I speak not as your subject, but as your friend." Trumpkin said kindly. "I've noticed how fond you are of him. You needn't hide it."

"But he doesn't feel the same way." Lucy said softly. "I know he doesn't."

"Do you really?" Trumpkin's voice although naturally gruff was very gentle in tone as he spoke these words. "How can you if you never ask him?"

"Because I'm not my sister." Lucy whispered pulling her knees to her chest. "And he loves her."

"Alright." Trumpkin nodded, reaching for her hand and looking her straight in the eye. "But what if you're wrong? What if he really cares about you and you miss this chance? Would you really want to risk that?"

Lucy smiled a little. "You sound like a mother." she teased.

"Don't get used to it." Trumpkin smiled back before nodding one last time and getting up to leave.

Lucy felt torn as she watched him go. Should she tell Ash how she felt or shouldn't she? Was it possible that he might realize that Susan would never love him and perhaps in time, learn to love her instead? Or was it just wishful thinking?

"Good night, your majesty." Trumpkin said as he left. "Try to get some sleep."

* * *

The hospital was now open to visitors again. Edmund, Susan, and Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie had returned to find Peter sitting in the same spot they'd left him. His face was more withdrawn today. He looked hopeless and even a bit sullen. Susan noticed that Peter had only taken one bite out of the granola bar and had then thrown it away in the waste basket by the bed.

"She started to wake up last night." Peter said without even looking up at them, his voice was sort of hoarse.

"She did?" Gasped Mrs. Pevensie racing to her daughter's side looking at her expectedly.

Peter was still unable to look up at them. "She didn't come back."

"Pete, she's going to be alright." Edmund tried to comfort him.

"What if she's not?" Peter's voice was a whisper now.

"Come on." Susan grabbed his hand and started to pull him up from the chair.

"Come on where?" Peter blinked at her in confusion.

"You are going downstairs to the cafeteria right now." Susan insisted in a no-nonsense tone she'd learned from her mother. "You are going to eat breakfast before we end up with two people in a coma."

Edmund smiled at her. Although not to the degree Lucy had noticed, it hadn't escaped Edmund's attention that Susan didn't seem to care about Peter's health. With the exception of maybe Mr. Pevensie who could be a tad oblivious at times, she was the only one who never seemed to notice how thin and pale he was getting. Until now.

"Why are you smiling?" Susan frowned at her younger brother.

"No reason." He said, beaming at her, unable to force the corners of his mouth to turn downwards again.

"I'm really not hungry, Su." Peter said as she started pushing him out of the room.

"I really don't care." Susan snapped, leading him down the hallway.

Edmund looked back at Lucy and noticed that her facial expressions seemed a little more distressed and the corners of her mouth were no longer turning up. She let out a moan.

"Shh, it's alright." Mrs. Pevensie whispered, gently stroking Lucy's left brow. "Mummy's here."

Edmund, who was on the other side of the bed, noticed a lock of her hair was stuck to a sweaty spot on her check. He gently peeled it off and moved it behind her ear. "There you are, Lu."

* * *

Lucy finally managed to get some sleep even if it was only for a grand total of twenty minutes. Then it was morning. She'd tossed and turned most of the night wondering if she should tell Ash how she felt and if so, how to go about it. In the end she decided that while Trumpkin packed up the camp site, she would ask Ash to take a short walk with her a little ways in the distance and would try to tell him how she felt if she didn't get too nervous.

"Ash, can we talk?" Lucy asked feeling as though she was hearing these worlds rather than saying them herself.

Ash walked over to her. "Sure, what's up?"

"I'll tell you over there." Lucy pointed to a spot a good distance away from the camp but not so far that they'd get lost.

Ash wondered what this was all about, Lucy looked so nervous. She kept fidgeting with the corners of her gown. He hoped she was alright.

"I..." Lucy opened her mouth to tell him everything but nothing came out except the first word of the three she needed him to know. She took a step closer to him. Her hands felt clammy and her cheeks more flushed than ever before. "I..."

Ash stood there and waited for her to speak. As usual, he wasn't in a rush. He wasn't the sort to push people or to insist that one get to the point. Waiting wasn't something he found very difficult.

Finally giving up on words altogether, Lucy leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.

He pulled away from her looking completely stunned. "Uh...I...um..."

"I'm sorry." Lucy blurted out. "I shouldn't have..."

"It's alright." Ash said softly, he took one of her hands in his. "I'm beyond flattered...you have no idea...it's just..."

Lucy was smart enough to figure out what he was about to say next before he said it. She could have mouthed the words with him if she'd had to.

"It wouldn't be fair to Susan." He said it as kindly as possible but Lucy still felt rejected. She had hoped even for a mere second that he might have felt the same way. That those words wouldn't come out of him. But they did. He'd never even been on so much as one date with Susan before and was still unbreakably loyal to her. To Lucy, he offered only his friendship.

"No, it wouldn't." Lucy didn't say what she might have said if she had been a very different sort of person. She didn't exclaim that Susan would never love him and he should just give up. It was best to just agree with him. What else could she do? She turned around and went back to the campsite.

Trumpkin, it must be confessed, allowed his curiosity to get the better of him and had packed up everything in haste, not nearly as neatly as he should have so that he might see what was going to happen. Being a woodland dwarf he was able to hide in the nearby trees without being seen. When he saw Ash pull away from Lucy, he was more than a little disgusted. Couldn't Ash see how much Lucy cared about him? It seemed that Ash and Susan had something in common after all. They were both too big of idiots to see what was had always been right in front of them. In the same way Susan always saw as just a friend, Ash would probably always see Lucy as some sweet little girl. He'd never notice the charming young woman who was so hopelessly in love with him.

Feeling very offended for his dear little friend, Trumpkin couldn't quite help himself from interfering once more. (He reminded himself to tell Aslan to never under any circumstances to send him on a quest with two youths of the opposite sex again).

"You're such an idiot." Trumpkin said to Ash as soon as Lucy was out of ear shot.

"Excuse me?" Ash raised an eyebrow at him.

"Queen Susan does not and will never love you." Trumpkin huffed. "Get it through your head."

"Look, Trumpkin." Ash decided not to call him on the fact that spying on them hadn't been very nice. "Lucy is a really sweet girl but she's a lot younger than me and I just don't..."

"Maybe you just don't deserve her." Trumpkin said in a very disappointed voice before walking back to where he'd tied up his pony.

Lucy tried to act normally but Ash could tell she was holding back tears most of the morning. She seemed cold and distant when they rode together on the horse although she tried to force a kind answer or even a smile if Ash spoke to her about anything.

As they rode along, the horse accidentally bumped his hoof against a rock. It jolted Lucy causing the yellow rose to fall out of her bag and into the snow.

"Is that?" Ash wondered if it was the same one he'd told her to give to Susan.

"She told me to keep it." Lucy said in quite voice. She knew it was bound to come out sooner or later but she hadn't wanted Ash to find out like this.

Trumpkin's right, Ash thought to himself as the realization he'd fought against for years finally dawned on him. I'm an idiot, Lucy is more than just some sweet little girl and I don't deserve her.


	10. Chapter 10

The yellow rose lay harmlessly in the snow. Lucy fought against the urge to get off the horse, bend down, and pick it up. It wasn't meant to be hers. Susan hadn't wanted it but she couldn't take it as her own after all.

It was snowing again and the little ice flakes quickly buried the ill-fated flower in a white blanket of frost.

Both Lucy and Ash held back tears as they rode away from it. They both felt as if they were losing hope. Hope of what? They weren't really sure. Perhaps it was hope of what might have been between them. What they might have allowed themselves to feel if Ash hadn't been hopelessly in love with Susan all these years.

The wind began to blow so furiously that it felt like a slap across the face whenever it brushed against exposed cheeks. It made them feel as though the skin was being peeled off their ears which now had a red-as-ripe-cherries hue to them. The snow flakes that landed on their noses and eyelashes felt more like icy bullets. Lips turned blue and noses turned scarlet. Both Lucy and Ash had a problem with the skin on their knuckles bursting open and bleeding. Lucy hated looking at the reins because seeing her dried blood caked over the brown leather made her feel rather sick to her stomach. They quickly remembered their forgotten gloves and slid them on. It made their hands thaw a little and ache less. Both wished they'd been clear-headed enough to recall the soft velvet-wool gloves sooner. No one dared cry or drool for fear any moisture would freeze and stick to them like barnacles.

They had to keep their eyes tightly shut as often as possible to avoid getting their eyeballs cut with the sharp sleet that blew at them mercilessly. When Trumpkin finally opened his eyes to be sure they weren't headed for a cliff, he saw what looked like a long wide tundra as untouched-white as a blank sheet of paper.

"Your majesty!" Trumpkin called to Lucy. "We've made it to the tundra."

Lucy allowed her eyes to slide open a crack and take in the sight of the flat, dull, chilly plain ahead of them. At least they were doing just what Aslan had told them to. They were on their way to Rilian where ever he was.

"I wonder how far in the castle is." Ash said speaking for the first time since he'd seen the yellow rose fall from Lucy's pouch earlier.

"I hope it isn't far." Lucy shivered, her purple-blue lips quivered as she spoke. "I've never been so cold before."

Ash took off his wool cap and placed it on Lucy's bare head. Ash had once read some where that people lost a lot of body heat through the head.

"Thanks." Lucy managed a smile at him, took her stiff-from-cracking-open left hand off the reins and was ready to it off and give it back if she had to. "But what about you?"

Ash shook his head. "You keep it." He insisted. "I don't need it."

Lucy smiled again. This time there was a little more warmth in it.

Ash felt his heart flutter a bit. It seemed to him that a smile like that could warm up tundras much colder than the one they were traveling on. It was really too bad that he'd been so foolish as to reject her. He thought sadly of that kiss she'd given him. It had been his first kiss and thinking back on it, he had felt something. Something he wasn't sure he would have felt if it had come from anyone else. Even Susan, he realized with more amazement than words could express, couldn't have kissed him like that. He knew now that if he could go back in time to that morning, he wouldn't have pushed her away.

Traveling along, they came to what looked like a white cliff with a tall thin hill jolting out of it's core. It wasn't nearly big enough to be a mountain but was as rocky and hard as though it were. On the top of it was the only dark color in the whole tundra. A great black castle with towers so large and imposing that they seemed to reached up through the gray-white clouds into heaven itself. It wasn't a friendly looking place in the least. Not at all warm and inviting like Cair Paravel. But all the same, any building at all looks quite appealing when you've been traveling in the cold snow for any extended period of time. A hideous garret on the top of a shabby apartment house would have seemed almost beautiful to them.

"Now we mustn't loose our heads." Trumpkin said firmly, as much to himself as to Lucy and Ash. He longed to rush up that hill, pound on the door and demand in the name of Aslan that they let them come in and warm themselves by a nice fire place. However Prince Rilian was probably a prisoner in that dark castle, meaning that whomever lived there need not be the least bit kind. It might be a wicked creature with some plot against Narnia as likely as not.

"How are the horse and pony going to get up that hill?" Ash wanted to know. "It's very steep."

"It's too steep." Trumpkin said gravely. "We have no choice but to leave the horses here and go up on foot."

"Oh, it does feel rotten leaving them here like this." Lucy sighed as she used the reins to tie the horse to grove in a nearby rock. "I feel like a murderer leaving them out there in this weather."

"Nothing can be done about it." Trumpkin said trying to sound tough and matter-a-fact but really feeling quite badly for his poor pony. The high-strung bright eyed creature wouldn't stop looking at him with a very, 'You aren't leaving me here are you?' sort of expression on its face.

Ash said nothing, pressed his lips together, eyed the hill and gulped. It was very imposing in appearance and climbing up it seemed dismal. It might have been less so if there was a merry party of friends and food awaiting them at the top but Ash knew perfectly well there'd be nothing of the sort and that it was bound to be a very unpleasant time indeed. The only good thing that could be said about the hill was that it had levels. If you fell down part of it you didn't slide all the way back down to the bottom. You simply fell to the level below you. Which was cheering in gloomy sort of way.

They all started carefully up the hill.

"Pace yourselves." Trumpkin warned them whenever they seemed in too great a haste to reach the top.

"But we shouldn't linger." Ash protested, taking a tighter grip on a rock he was pushing himself up on.

"Haste makes waste." Trumpkin reminded them.

"Hey, my mother says that." Ash beamed at the dwarf.

Trumpkin pouted at the thought of being compared to anybody's mother. It was bad enough when Lucy did it, he almost wanted to smack Ash for daring to try it but decided not to. He had to concentrate on reaching the top of this hill.

* * *

The hospital was quiet. There weren't that many visitors or emergencies that day. The lovely clear blue sky that looked very out of season for that time of year could be seen through the window in Lucy's room. Mrs. Pevensie had pulled back the curtains convinced that her daughter would feel better if a little sunlight were allowed in.

Peter was sitting in his chair beside her. Susan had succeeded in getting him to eat a decent breakfast which was more than he felt the lump in his throat and the pit in his stomach would allow. But Susan had been very determined and it the end it proved easier to just give in. As he'd eaten, Peter realized that it felt very good. He hadn't realized he'd been starving until then. He wondered how long it had been since he'd sat down and really enjoyed a good meal. Any meal. And managed it eat everything on his plate while he was at it.

Now though, food was the last thing on his mind. He could tear his eyes away from his poor baby sister who had shown no signs of waking up since that one moment the night before.

Edmund stood behind the chair and was watching the waves on the machine by Lucy's bedside go up and down. Suddenly they weren't so wavy. They looked like they were getting flatter and flatter.

"Peter!" He exclaimed.

Peter and Susan flew over to the monitor. Something was wrong. Very wrong. If there wasn't some mistake, it meant they were losing her.

"Susan, go get the doctor now!" Peter ordered, grabbing onto Lucy's hand. "You're going to be alright. You just have to be."

Susan raced down the hallway as quickly as her legs would take her. She prayed that the doctor hadn't gone on break. He had to be in the building. If he wasn't...no she wouldn't think about that. She had to find him.

* * *

Lucy suddenly fell down to the lower level of the hill she laid where she'd fallen and didn't move.

"Lucy!" Screamed Ash, jumping down as quickly as he could to reach her.

Trumpkin followed close behind. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Ash said, not bothering to wipe away the tears that were now freezing to his face. When he reached her, he saw much to his horror that she still didn't move. She was laying on her back and her eyes were half closed.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong? What's the matter?" Trumpkin cried out letting his emotions betray him for once in his life.

Ash kneeled in the snow beside her. "Lucy..." He lifted her head onto his lap.

"I feel so weak." Lucy managed to murmur, as her eyes started to close a little more.

"No, stay awake." Ash pleaded as he shook her gently hoping the motion would keep her from fainting-or worse.

* * *

"Lucy please don't leave us." Mrs. Pevensie bawled as the doctor and his assistants tried desperately to find out what the problem was and save her. "Come back my sweet girl, come back!"

The lines on the machine were almost as flat as they could get without being completely straight lines.

"Lu..." Peter sobbed, clinging onto her side as closely as he could without getting in the doctor's way. "Lucy, please..."

"Please don't die." Susan wailed, looking into the pale weak unmoving face of her sister. "Please Lucy. Please."

The corners of Lucy's mouth started to relax.

"No!" Edmund cried, realizing what was happening.

* * *

Lucy felt very strange. She felt as though she was both in a bed and in a snow bank at the same time. She could see nothing but blackness all about her. But she could hear. She could hear so many voices all of them pleading with her.

First she could hear Trumpkin and Ash. Ash's was the last face she'd seen before this dark blackness surrounded her. Then she couldn't hear them but could hear Peter, Susan, Edmund, and her parents. They were crying and pleading with her to come back to them. Then she couldn't hear them anymore at all. She could hear Ash and Trumpkin only. Then it changed and she heard Peter again. Then she heard all of the voices at once. They overlapped one another and spoke over and over again like a broken record. _Wake up don't leave us!_ Then the sound grew softer and softer until it faded away.

* * *

The lines on the machine went flat and there was a sharp, BEEP. All the nurses hung their heads. They felt so sorry for the young pretty child who'd just passed away and for her family.

Peter and Edmund were clinging to each other tightly weeping harder than they'd ever wept in their lives. Susan was crying into her father's heaving chest. Mrs. Pevensie held onto no one sobbing into the palms of her hands.

* * *

Ash reached into Lucy's pouch and pulled out Lucy's magic cordial. His numb fingers struggled to open it. _Please let this work..._ When it was open he gently lifted the diamond bottle to Lucy's lips letting a drop fall into her mouth.

For moment there seemed to be no change. She didn't move and it seemed as though she was dead. There was no so much as a light pulse and her heart had stopped beating.

"We were too late." Sobbed Trumpkin. "She's gone. We've lost her."

* * *

Lucy felt the darkness evaporate from around her. Her eyes were closed but she could feel sunlight touching them. She heard weeping. She opened her eyes and saw a clear blue sky out of a slightly streaky window. She was in a white room. Her eyes focused on a brown clip board that said, "Room 626, Lucy Pevensie. Age: 17."

Then she closed her eyes again and felt as though she was falling into another body. It was still her's but it was worlds away and much colder than the one she'd been in only a second ago

"Peter, look!" She distantly heard Susan cry out.

She hadn't seen Lucy with open eyes but she did see the machine waves started up again as well as Lucy's chest going up and down. She was alive!

Peter raced over to her bed side. "Thanks be to the Lion!"

"But how is that possible?" Mr. Pevensie gasped happily.

The doctor smiled and shrugged. "It isn't."

"A miracle!" Cried Mrs. Pevensie overcome with joy.

* * *

Lucy's head still rested on Ash's lap. He looked down at her unable to stop blubbing.

Lucy felt hard frozen tears hitting her face like hail and was feeling caught somewhere between deeply moved and slightly irritated.

"I love you." Ash cried even harder now (If that was even possible). "I've been so stupid."

Lucy's eyes slid open a crack and a smile started to form on her lips. "Say it again."

Ash was so relieved when he saw her bright blue eyes looking up at him again. "I've been so stupid."

Lucy crinkled her brow and frowned at him. "No, not that part!"

Ash couldn't help laughing a bit at that. "Sorry."

Trumpkin smiled and held his tongue. This moment was just for them and he didn't want to interrupt.

"I love you." Ash said again.

Lucy felt her teeth chattering with joy. "Really?"

"Yes." Whispered Ash pulled her close to him and embracing her so tightly that she could barely breathe. "I love you and I'm never going to let you go!"

"Ash..." Lucy's voice was somewhere between a gasp and a laugh.

"Yes?"

"Let go."

"Okay." Ash laughed and let her go.

They sat in the snow looking up at one another happily.

"I thought I'd lost you." Ash said softly.

"What happened?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know it was as if you just died suddenly..." Ash shuddered. "It was terrible." He lifted the diamond bottle and showed it to her. "I thought this might help so..."

Lucy leaned forward and kissed him.

This time he didn't pull away. He kissed her back.

Trumpkin waited nearly five minutes watching them kiss before he finally coughed, "Ahem!"

They pulled away from each other and started climbing the hill again.

For the rest of the day, Trumpkin acted rather grumpy because thanks to them, he found he couldn't stop smiling and he had to make up for it some how.


	11. Chapter 11

When they finally reached the black castle they were shivering. Their faces were pale blue and their lips a dark purple from cold. In spite of the frosty air, both Lucy and Ash were happier than they could remember being for a long time. When they got so cold that they couldn't bare it they would cling to each other for warmth, a sight which Trumpkin secretly liked seeming. They were just so sweet together. The three of them lumbered towards the steel front door. There didn't seem to be a draw bridge or moat of any kind, Perhaps whomever lived there didn't need one, the tundra itself must have been more than enough protection. What army in their right mind would even want to cross it?

"So, this is it." Trumpkin said gravely. "We've done as Aslan ordered. Now there is only one thing left to do, find Prince Rilian."

"But will they-whomever they are-really just let us walk in and take him?" Ash wondered aloud. It seemed too easy.

"I don't think so." Trumpkin told him. "There is sure to be something dreadful that's held him captive all these years."

Two large black shutters swung open and a sour-faced dwarf dressed head-to-toe in fur and golden-tassels, stuck his head out of a low window they hadn't even known was there.

"Who dares come to the great ebony castle of the north?" He demanded.

"We've come looking for Prince Rilian." Ash blurted out before Lucy or Trumpkin could warn him that he'd do best to keep his mouth shut as far as that matter was concerned.

"Never heard of him, go away!" The dwarf glowered at them and slammed the shutters closed again.

"That rude little beast." Lucy sulked, rubbing her hands together. "He might have let us in to warm ourselves even if he doesn't know the prince."

"He certainly gives us dwarfs a bad name." Trumpkin agreed. "He's all very cozy in his fur and I'll wager there's a fire in that great castle."

"What do we do now?" Ash wanted to know. "We can't go back to King Caspian with out Rilian. And we came all this way..."

"We're not going anywhere." Trumpkin huffed, storming up to the shutters and knocking on them. "Now see here, dwarf! Who taught you manners? Leaving visitors out to freeze in the cold while you stay snug as anything in there."

"Eh, what's that?" The shutters swung open again, nearly striking Trumpkin across the face as they did so. The dwarf stuck his head out again.

"Wont you let us in?" Lucy asked in her nicest voice.

"Go away you blue-faced things!" The dwarf hissed. "We don't give food away to such strange looking creatures."

"We aren't really this colour." Lucy said, feeling that she very much would like to smack him for being so rude to them. "We're blue from cold."

"I wish to speak to your master at once!" Trumpkin snapped, in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "I reckon this isn't your castle?"

"I haven't got a master." The dwarf practically spat at them. "I've got a mistress and she's not to be bothered, so there!"

"Well if you wont let us in, we want to speak with her." Trumpkin said unrelentingly.

"If I throw you some bread will you go away?" The dwarf asked condescendingly.

"We don't want your bread." Trumpkin said taking a step closer to the window. "What we want is to be allowed in there before we turn into blocks of ice."

"Obeilok?" A woman's voice called from behind him in the room. "Whom are you speaking to?"

The dwarf called over his shoulder, "No one, oh great lady. Just some cold creatures who want to come in."

"Please Missus!" Ash blurted out, awkwardly. "We'll jolly well die of cold out here."

The lady approached the window and for a moment Lucy, Ash, and Trumpkin held their breath. She was utterly beautiful. Her skin was porcelain white without a single blemish. Her hair was a long series of golden ringlets that fell almost to her waist. Her eyes were a dark green the same colour as the long gown she was wearing.

"Oh you poor dears!" Gasped she, licking the corner of her lips as she spoke in a sweet voice that was smoother than oil. "Come in and get warm."

At once the door was opened for them and they were allowed to enter. They found themselves in a very fine red-walled palace with three fireplaces in the main front room they'd just entered. There were large black doors all to the left in rows that seemed to stretch on for miles. The castle seemed both bigger and smaller from the inside than from the outside if that was possible. Ash front it the most puzzling, not having seen as many strange places as Lucy had.

A large purple-and-crimson rug floated through the air carrying the lady they'd just seen at the window on top of it. She sat cross legged with her long gown and shimmering robes falling all around her.

By gum! Thought Ash, a magic carpet!

Lucy felt strangely nervous and took a step closer to Ash who reached out and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

The carpet hovered in on place for a while getting lower and lower until at last, the lady could dismount. Then she walked over to them and pointed to a tall stone pillar off to the side of the room. On the top of it was a little arch from which hung a golden bell.

"All you need do is ring it if you need anything." The lady told them. "Food, water, blankets. Just ring and it shall be yours." She took something out of one of the folds of her gown and handed it to Lucy.

Lucy examined the small object that she held in her palm. It was little gold hammer with strange carvings on the handle.

"Many thanks, I'm sure but we wanted to ask if-" Trumpkin started.

The lady held up her palm signaling for him to stop speaking. "Listen, for this is important. While you are here you will certainly hear screaming and crying coming from the only silver door in the castle (The rest are made of steel). Whatever you do, you mustn't open it. A blood-thirsty shape-shifting troll is behind that door and he can make his voice sound as harmless and desperate as a child's. If you should open the door, he would turn into a snake and swallow you up whole. At least at now he would. For two hours each morning he shapes into a harmless form and I like his company at those moments which is why I let him live in my castle. But he'd simply devour you if you were to open that door."

I wonder if she's telling the truth or not. Lucy thought to herself, feeling very much that they couldn't quite trust this woman. Something about the gleam in her green eyes and the way she always licked her lips when she spoke made her feel uneasy.

"No worries, we'll leave the door alone." Ash promised, crossing his fingers behind his back as he spoke. Something about the lady didn't seem right and he believed she might really be hiding something-or perhaps someone-behind that door.

"Well then I will go away now." The lady said, licking her lips once again. "I'll see you later. I've things I must attend to." Then she motioned to the flying carpet. "I'll leave this with you." And with that, she left the room on foot.

"I don't trust her one bit." Trumpkin whispered as soon as she was out of ear shot. "She reminds me of those horrible stories of the White Witch she could be one of the same crew. I don't think she could be anything else. She's no daughter of Eve though. She isn't like Queen Lucy or her sister that's for sure."

"Then I suppose it wouldn't be wise to use the bell to call for food?" Ash's stomach rumbled.

"Let's just see what happens." Trumpkin suggested.

Lucy nodded and walked over to the pillar that the bell was on. She clanked the hammer against it.

The magic carpet zoomed away and returned with three trays of food.

"Oh!" Gasped Lucy. "I didn't expect the carpet to do that."

"That must by why she left it with us." Trumpkin guessed, playing with the tips of his beard in deep thought. "I wonder if it wont turn on us."

"Should we try the food?" Ash asked.

"I think I'd rather starve." Lucy said suddenly. She was thinking that if the lady really was a northern witch like the White Witch had been, trying the food might be a mistake. She was thinking of what Edmund had told her about the Turkish Delight. How he would have gone on eating and eating it until he burst if the witch had allowed it. Perhaps that's what the lady had in mind now.

"I'm not all that hungry anyway." Ash lied supportively before his stomach rumbled again.

Trumpkin had a little bit of the food Caspian had sent them off with in his pocket. He took a it out and gave a little bit to Ash. "Here."

Ash thanked him, ate half of it, and then offered the other half to Lucy. She tried to refuse but Ash insisted until she gave in and took it. Although far from full, they felt a little better.

Trumpkin suggested they climb on the magic carpet and try to see if it would help them. They all climbed on it.

"Take us to the silver door." Lucy whispered, assuming the rug could understand speech.

"Lucy, I don't think it-" Ash started before the rug took of and so quickly that everything blurred and they didn't seem to be moving at all and stopped right in front of the silver door. "-Never mind."

Lucy climbed off the carpet once it went low enough and pressed her ear against the door.

A childish shriek came from the other side of the door, "Please help me! Let me out, it's dark in here!"

"Do you think it's the troll?" Ash asked her. "Maybe the lady was telling the truth?"

"I don't know." Lucy's hand was two inches from the door knob. She wanted to open it but she shuddered to think of what might happen if they were wrong. Perhaps the strange lady wasn't a witch after all. Supposing she was just a regular lady living in a large black castle in a tundra away from it all...wait, that didn't make sense either! But what if there really was troll who would turn into a snake and eat them?

"If only there was some way of knowing." Trumpkin said mournfully. "I don't think we want to get ourselves eaten. Do you suppose..."

"Please!" The voice from behind the door cried. "Let's me out! Whomever you are! You aren't her, you haven't got an oily voice. You're visitors! You must be!"

"Well whatever is behind the door is intelligent." Trumpkin commented dryly.

"Has she told you that I'll eat you if you let me out?" The voice asked.

"Yes she has." Lucy answered it, taking a step back from the door. "If by she you mean the lady in the green dress."

"Yes, that's her!" The voice exclaimed. "Please, don't believe her. I'm not a troll. And I wont hurt you. I couldn't, you know. I'll bet you're bigger than me."

"Oh the poor thing!" Lucy cried, shooting a pleading glance at Trumpkin and Ash who were still seated on the magic carpet. "I want to let him out."

"But if it's a troll...no, you mustn't." Trumpkin didn't want to see his dear little friend get eaten. There was a chance that nothing bad would happen, that the voice spoke the truth that the lady was obviously hiding from them. But if anything happened to Queen Lucy, he'd never forgive himself.

"She says I'll turn into a snake and eat you up, that's what she says to all of them." The voice was wailing now. "but it's not true. I can't turn into a snake. I can't turn into anything at all. I'm just a human boy. She can turn into a snake and she does! She's eaten the other visitors that came to save me. She waited until they were asleep. They wouldn't let me out of here because of what she said."

"Oh!" The three of them gasped at once. Was the voice telling the truth? Was the witch-if that's what she was-going to turn into a snake and eat then when they fell asleep?

"Please, in the name of Aslan, let me out!" At this whomever the voice belonged to kicked at the door furiously.

Lucy's hand flew to the handle at once. "I'll let you out this very second!"

"Lucy, wait!" Ash pleaded with her, leaping off the carpet, rushing over to her, and grabbing onto her wrist. "What if-"

Lucy smiled at him. "Ash! It's what Aslan told us! There isn't a troll behind this door at all. He asked us in Aslan's name to let him out." She rolled her eyes towards the door excitedly. "Don't you see? There _is_ a child behind the door and it's Prince Rilian!"

* * *

Peter, Susan, and Edmund continued to sit quietly by Lucy's bedside hoping for a sign of her waking up. Susan sat by the window looking out at the cars and people coming and going. Edmund sat beside her but with his back to the window his gaze fixed on the lines on the machine watching them go up and down.

Peter was of course right next to Lucy's bed, rarely taking his eyes off of his baby sister. He knew she was seventeen but in his eyes she was still so small. He loved her so much. He remembered the first time Mum had agreed to let him hold her as a baby. He'd begged and pleaded until she finally said that he could if he promised to be very, very careful and not drop her. She had been so little! Had it really been seventeen years? It felt like less than a day.

"Hullo." A voice said.

The three of them turned to see a hospital volunteer wheeling in a cart of books. She was about fifteen or so with her light brown hair pulled up in a slightly messy bun. She was sort of nervous and fidgety but she managed to stammer, "Would any of you like something to read?"

Peter looked over at the cart. Mostly classics. He remembered reading them aloud to his younger siblings a few years ago. He thought maybe Lucy would like to hear some of it now. "Sure." He took one of Lucy's favorites off the rack. He opened it and started to read aloud.


	12. Chapter 12

Lucy pulled on the handle, flinging the large silver door open. Standing there was a frightened-looking little boy. He was about nine or ten but looked much younger. He looked a lot like his mother with his golden-haired head and his bright blue spears of eyes. He had a nose that looked a lot like Caspian's only smaller and a chin that-although Lucy didn't want to admit it- looked a little like Miraz's. He was dressed head-to-toe in black. His doublet and tights were black making a striking contrast against his ivory white skin.

She didn't spend much time looking at him head on because as soon as she saw the child, she raced over and embraced him.

Startled, the little boy whispered, "Who are you?"

"I'm Queen Lucy." Lucy said, taking his hand in her's and leading him all the way out of the room. "I'm a friend of your father's. I went sailing to the end of the world with him years ago."

"I'm Prince Rilian." The little boy said sheepishly.

"I know." Lucy said with a kind reassuring smile. "We've come all this way to find you."

"We?" Rilian echoed. "Who else did father send this time?"

Trumpkin jumped off of the magic carpet and walked over to the little prince. "Your father isn't the one who sent us, DLP."

"Trumpkin!" Rilian squealed, breaking free of Lucy's grip and rushing over to the dwarf. He threw his arms around him and hugged him so tightly poor Trumpkin could barely breathe.

"DLP?" Ash raised an eyebrow at Trumpkin.

"Dear Little Prince." Trumpkin turned a little red in the face as he admitted what it stood for. "You can blame Lucy for getting me stuck on that sort of humor."

"Let's get out of here." Lucy said, climbing back onto the magic carpet.

Trumpkin helped Rilian up behind her. "There you are, your highness."

"Can we get out?" Ash wondered aloud. "Wont that lady stop us?"

"No!" Rilian cried excitedly. "Don't you see? We can get out now before she comes back as a snake to eat you! We have the carpet. Because you used the bell but didn't eat the food, the carpet can carry us right out of here. If you had so much as tasted the food, it would have made you so heavy the carpet couldn't lift you, even thought you would look the same size as you normally were."

Ash felt relieved. Suddenly a rumbling stomach didn't seem like such a bad infliction in light of this knowledge. At least they could get back to Cair Paravel safely and bring Rilian home to his father.

* * *

Peter's voice started to get a little hoarse after reading aloud for two hours straight, but he couldn't bring himself to stop. In his mind he wasn't in a hospital. His heart was in a wonderful vision. A memory in fact.

He was seated in a comfortable arm chair by the fireplace at home. Mum and dad had gone to bed early and left the younger ones in his care. Edmund for once wasn't causing trouble because he had a bit of a cold and it had tamed him into being quiet while Peter read. Susan was good and quiet but whether or not she liked the story, he couldn't tell. She wore a polite expression that suggested she was listening but didn't tell much about her feelings on the matter; it was the same expression she wore at school when the teacher was speaking. Lucy's expression was quite different from that of her older siblings. When the characters were in peril, she clenched her jaw tightly and held her own hand. When the brave hero saved the day, she smiled looking very relieved. She was in the story, she loved the story, and that made reading passed the intended 'one chapter before bed' worth while.

Peter knew that as soon as he gave in and closed the book, it would all be over. Lucy wouldn't be a little girl peering up at him from her place on the rug, she would be a teenager in a coma. He wanted to keep on reading as long as he possibly could.

Finally, Susan gently lifted the book out of his hands. "That's enough for now, Peter."

Peter nodded. "Yes, I suppose it is."

"Peter, Edmund, there's someone here to see you." Mr. Pevensie walked into the room holding a newspaper and coffee.

Who could it be? Peter wondered, Was it one of the other students from his university? If so, why were they being allowed in this part of the hospital?

A tall man that Peter and Edmund had never seen before came in pushing a wheelchair. On the wheelchair sat a familiar woman. It was the lady they'd helped give birth! She was holding her two twins (both boys) wrapped in sky-blue blankets. One was sound asleep, the other kept opening and closing his eyes as if fighting the urge to nap.

Susan walked over and smiled at the babies. "Aren't they just adorable!" She cooed.

"Would you like to hold one of them?" The woman offered.

"Sure." Susan agreed shyly as the woman's husband gently lifted the sleeping twin away from his mother, into Susan's arms.

"So..." Edmund didn't know what to say.

"So, you aren't doctors." The woman's husband laughed.

"Well not in the technical term of the word..." Edmund stammered.

"Or in _any_ term of the word." Peter admitted, shooting a slight glare at his younger brother.

The husband chuckled to himself. "Well doctors or not, you helped my wife give birth and maybe it's just the pain-killer drugs talking but she's decided she wants to name them after the two of you."

"Really?" Peter raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You're kidding." Edmund said bluntly.

"That's why we came here." The woman explained with a slight giggle. "We wanted to get your names."

"I'm Peter, and that's Edmund." Peter told her, gesturing to his brother.

"Well then that's what we'll name the twins." The husband declared.

"You should call the sleeping one, Peter." Susan told the woman. "Edmund never slept as a baby, he didn't nothing but cry from morning 'til night."

"That's not true!" Edmund exclaimed. He leaned over to Peter's ear and whispered, "Is that true?"

"Sure is." Peter whispered back.

"Darn." Edmund actually sounded disappointed to hear that.

* * *

It was a long journey back to Cair Paravel but it seemed much faster than the journey away from it. The magic carpet flew them as far as where they left the horse and the pony, then disappeared. They never did discover if it was gone for real or if it just went back to its mistress. Nor, did they feel they really had a reason to care. Of course they worried that the witch-for that is what she truly was-might try to kidnap someone again and use him in her plot to take over Narnia as she apparently was planning on doing with Rilian once he came of age but now that they new the secret of the ebony castle, they felt they had little to fear.

When they arrived at Cair Paravel tired and sore but very happy, Caspian and his wife saw them from their chamber window and rushed out to meet them.

"Father!" Cried Rilian rushing into Caspian's arms.

"My boy!" Caspian whispered as he clung onto the little boy, only letting go so that he could go hug his mother as well.

"Oh Mother, I've missed you terribly!" Rilian sobbed as the star's daughter kissed his cheeks and forehead.

"My sweet darling child!" Wailed the queen. She looked up at Lucy, Trumpkin, and Ash with tears in her eyes. "You did it!"

"Your son is very brave." Ash told her, not knowing what else to say.

"Don't I know it, Don't I know it!" The queen cried passionately, pulling her son into another embrace.

"They saved me, mother." The boy stated the obvious.

"Oh, he did a great deal of it on his own as well." Ash explained to the prince's beaming parents. "We thought there might be a troll behind the door but he cried out in Aslan's name and that's how Lucy knew it was him."

"What a good boy." Caspian sighed, messing up his little boy's hair affectionately.

"The lady's still alive." Rilian said sadly. "What if she comes back for me?"

"We wont let her." Caspian promised him. "We know what to be on the look out for now. But I fear you must tell the royal court everything that's happened to you even if it's hard. They have to know."

"Oh, yes!" Rilian said bravely. "I'm not afraid to tell them."

The star's daughter took Lucy by the hands. "Tonight we will have a grand ball in honour of you, Trumpkin, Ash, and the safe return of our dear son."

Lucy nearly squealed with delight. It had been such a long time since her last Narnian ball. And Ash had _never_ been to one! She wondered if he would go as her escort and if they'd dance together and-oh, wasn't it funny to think that Susan had always been the one who thought of men and balls? But to be fair, Lucy wasn't thinking of _men_ and balls. She was only thinking of one man, Ash. Most of all though she wondered that in the mist of celebration, if Aslan himself might show up.

Her ball gown was nothing short of splendid. Long red and orange laced sleeves, a slim flattering but wholesome middle, and a gorgeous train nearly two feet long. Lucy spun around in front of her chamber's mirror feeling very giddy, laughing to herself like a small child.

Now that they had some time, it had been arranged for Ash to see a tailor so that he could get clothing of his own and not have to wear Edmund's old things anymore. A rich brown velvet tunic paired with matching cape, shoes, and tights were quickly made up for him. When he asked if she thought he maybe looked a little silly all decked out like that, Lucy smiled and said she thought he looked very handsome. He blushed and thanked her with a kiss.

* * *

Peter and Edmund posed for a few pictures holding the babies that were to be named after them.

When the woman's husband finally stopped clicking his camera, Edmund let out a sigh of relief, as he handed the howling 'baby Edmund' back to his mother.

"My face hurts from smiling so much." Edmund whispered to Peter.

"Mine too." Peter said through his teeth, still smiling while a few more shots of him holding 'baby Peter' were taken. Then he gently handed him over to Susan who gave him back to his mother.

"Thanks for everything you two." The husband said with a grin. "By the way, are either of you looking into a career in medicine?"

"I was thinking about it." Peter admitted.

"Well I think with the proper training the two of you would make fine doctors." He said kindly, wheeling his wife and new-born children out of the room.

"So there's a new set of Peter and Edmund brothers." Susan said thoughtfully, laughing a little. "I wonder what sort of trouble they'll get into."

"Well let's hope that Peter learns to tell that Edmund 'no' and mean it once in a while." Peter teased, giving Edmund a playful shove.

Edmund shoved him back. "Well let's hope that Peter is less over-protective."

"You did a good thing." Mrs. Pevensie told her sons. Then she frowned at Peter. "Although if you still lived at home, I'd ground you."

Everything seemed like it was falling into place again. Everything that was, except Lucy.


	13. Chapter 13

It was getting very late and even though the ball was still in full swing (Even for Rilian who had snuck back down after his mother put him to bed and was hiding behind one of the dessert tables to watch everything), Lucy felt sort of tired. She allowed Ash to lead her into one of the castle's sitting rooms where the noise of the ball was muffled and a warm fire crackled merrily.

They sat together on the rug in front of it. Lucy had her head and left side leaning against Ash who had his arm around her. For a moment they rested quietly without saying anything until Ash let out a sudden cry of pain.

"Ash?" Lucy lifted her head and looked at him nervously. "What's wrong?"

"Lucy..." He gasped, clearly in ever increasing pain. "Please get off my side, it hurts."

Lucy sat up and looked at him with wide-eyed fear. He was cringing and moaning. He could barely move. His eyes kept opening and closing.

"Ash?" Lucy said again, reaching for her cordial. "You'll be alright...just one drop..." She struggled with the stopper which for some reason stubbornly refused to open.

"My ribs feel like they're broken." Ash told her weakly. He was in so much pain all of a sudden that he thought he might faint. He didn't want to scare Lucy though so he didn't tell her that. After all, she'd give him the cordial and he'd be fine. Wasn't that how it always worked?

Still struggling with the stopper, Lucy's fingers twitched nervously. What was wrong with Ash? Had he hit his side on something? Had he maybe been poisoned? Edmund had once said something about a sort of poison that worked by making one or both of your sides ache. But who would poison Ash? Everyone here liked him.

The door flew open and Lucy's pupils slid over to it. Standing there was a large golden Lion. Aslan himself. He looked over at Lucy and Ash, his dark golden eyes shinning with what looked almost like tears.

"Aslan!" Lucy cried, placing the diamond bottle down on the floor and rushing over to him. She buried herself in his mane. When she lifted her head, she looked at him nervously. "Something's wrong with Ash."

Aslan nodded. "I know." his deep voice was loaded with sympathy. "Dear one, I have something to tell you both."

"What is it?" Lucy asked, her face turned very white although she wasn't sure why she felt so afraid.

"In your own world, you are not as you are here." Aslan explained grimly. "In this world you are mostly well. But in that world, you both are dying in hospital beds."

"What?" Ash's croaked, clutching his side as he attempted to stand up and wobble over to Aslan.

"How can that be?" Lucy suddenly remembered what she had seen and heard the two times she'd fainted. Peter, white everywhere, voices of fear, the chart, the beeping sounds...oh, she _was_ dying!

"Haven't you guessed?" Aslan's voice was nearly a whisper now. "There was a real railway accident and you were both in it."

"I don't want to die." Ash moaned, looking at Lucy and then back at Aslan again. "Not yet."

Aslan rested a golden paw on Ash's shoulder. "You wont die yet, son of Adam. Nor will you, Lucy. You aren't dead. Neither of you are. You can get better."

"I see." Lucy said softly.

"You must return to your own world now." Aslan reached the point he was trying to make.

"Yes, I know." Lucy said agreeably. "They must all be so worried. But Aslan, do tell us when we can come back to Narnia. And please, please, mightn't it be soon?"

Aslan shook his head. "You and Ash will never return to Narnia."

"Never?" Ash felt quite disappointed. He was really liking it here. Back home he was just the annoying shrimp who hung around with the Pevensie family. Here he was something much greater than that.

Lucy started weeping.

"Oh dear heart..." Aslan nuzzled her gently. "Why are you crying?"

"Because I'm never to be allowed to come home again." She sobbed.

"Oh come now..." Aslan said gently. "You are nearly grown up. Do you really still need Narnia?"

"It isn't Narnia, you know." Lucy said through her tears. "It's you, Aslan. If I can't come back, how will I ever see you again?"

"I promise Lucy, you will see me again." Aslan planted a gentle Lion-kiss on her forehead. "Some day you and I shall meet once more, I promise."

* * *

The large clock in the hospital hallway had just struck midnight. After the twelve dongs, Lucy Pevensie returned to her own world. Her eye lids were heavy and her head ached. She felt needles sticking into one of her arms. When she finally gathered enough strength to open her eyes, she realized much to her surprise that the room wasn't as sharp a white as it had been before. In the cool midnight atmosphere it seemed almost blue. She could see the shadows of the translucent curtains swaying back and forth making pretty dark-and-light patterns on the opposite wall. A bright brilliant moonbeam stretched delicately through the window shinning a trickle of light over the chair next to the bed.

Twisting ever so slightly, Lucy could see her eldest brother asleep in his chair. He seemed peaceful for the first time in a long while. His lips were turned up and he didn't seem as weak or high-strung as the last time she'd seen him. Lucy opened her mouth to speak but at first her lips felt stuck together and she could open them wide enough to make noticeable sounds. Then her voice was too soft and a little hoarse. Finally she managed to murmur, "Peter?"

Peter opened one eye and glanced at the bed as if expecting to see no change at all. He'd heard her voice calling him many times in his dreams and had awakened to see no change at all. But this time was different. She was awake, both of her eyes were open and it looked like she was trying to sit up.

"Lucy!" He gasped. He threw his arms around her and kissed her forehead.

"I'm back." Lucy said softly when he finally pulled away from her a little.

Peter crinkled his forehead. "Lucy, what are you talking about? Back from where?"

"I was in Narnia." Lucy told him, her eyes shinning. "I met Aslan and everything."

"You must have been dreaming." Peter said, gently moving a lock of Lucy's hair out of her eyes.

"But I wasn't!" Lucy insisted excitedly. "I saw Caspian again too. He had a little boy named Rilian and he was married to the star's daughter. Oh, and Trumpkin was there!"

"Lu," Peter shook his head. He wanted to believe her but it wasn't uncommon for people in comas to think they were somewhere they weren't. "You couldn't have been in Narnia. You were here the whole time."

"But I was in Narnia too!" Lucy exclaimed, sitting up in the bed. A sudden rush of pain struck her and she winced; her eyes filling up with tears.

"Take it easy." Peter cautioned her, propping a pillow behind her back so she could sit up more comfortably. "You're a little banged up from the crash."

"I really truly was there, Peter." Lucy insisted again, grabbing into her brother's hand. "It was my last time. Aslan said so. And Ash..." She paused for a moment and looked around. "Where's Ash?"

"He's in another room." Peter explained.

"Is he alright?" Lucy asked anxiously. "He wasn't doing so well the last time I saw him."

"What _are_ you talking about?" Peter asked, having a hard time keeping up with her story.

"I saw him a few minutes ago, before Aslan sent us back." Lucy told him. "He said his side hurt."

"What?" Peter was more confused than ever.

"He went to Narnia with me." Lucy tried to explain.

"Lucy, are you in there?" A weak voice called into the room, pushing the door open.

A familiar young man walked in. He was holding onto the long metal bar with wheels that needles forced his arm to be attached to and he was hunching over on one side (which was bandaged up) as if in a lot of pain.

"Ash?" Peter rubbed his eyes and pinched himself to be sure this wasn't a dream.

"Hullo, Peter." Ash said in a low friendly tone.

"Ash!" Lucy cried out happily. "Aslan was right! We didn't die."

"Thanks." Peter said

Ash looked confused when he realized Peter was talking to him. "For what?"

"For saving my sister's life!" Peter exclaimed, never having been prouder to have Ash as a friend of the family. "The doctor told me everything."

"I saved her life?" Ash asked, seeming more confused than ever. Then he remembering when he'd given her the cordial. "How did the doctor know about what happened on the cliff?"

"Cliff?" Peter crinkled his forehead. "What cliff?"

"He's talking about the train, Ash." Lucy told him.

"So he doesn't know?" Ash asked her.

"I just told him." Lucy said, looking at Peter in a 'do you believe me now?' sort of way.

"About Narnia?" Ash raised an eyebrow. "You didn't tell him...about..."

"About what?" Lucy asked, rubbing her forehead, feeling another headache coming on.

"About...you know..." Ash stammered, turning a little red in the face and trying not to smile.

Lucy blushed when she caught on. "No, not yet."

"Tell me about what?" Peter wondered what in the world they were referring to.

Lucy wasn't sure if this was the best time to tell her over-protective older brother that she and Ash were more than friends now. "I'll tell you later."

"Alright." Peter shrugged. Then the fact that Ash was actually awake and out of his hospital room finally dawned on him. "Ash, maybe you should go back to your own room?"

"Do I have to?" Ash shot them both a pleading look. "It's dark and there are no visitors."

"That's because it's midnight." Peter said dryly.

"Can I sleep in one of the chairs?" Ash motioned to a chair a little ways away from Lucy's bed.

"I don't think it's such a good idea." Peter felt sorry for the poor chap but didn't want the hospital staff to get mad. After all they were probably still upset about him and Edmund pretending to be doctors and going into delivery. Wouldn't that be a story to tell Lucy!

"Please?" Ash begged.

"Come on, Peter." Lucy did her most appealing expression the one that usually made Peter give into whatever she asked for. "Can't he stay? just for tonight?"

"Alright." Peter gave in, his eyes filling up with tears as he realized his sister was going to live after all. She was awake and talking. She was healing. She was going to be alright. And so was he.


	14. Chapter 14

For reasons best known to herself, Lucy didn't tell Peter about her and Ash during the rest of their stay at the hospital. She fully intended to tell him afterwards but was so busy worrying about whether or not he would take care of himself now that he was going back to his university, that she sort of forgot to mention it. She did tell him everything else about her last trip to Narnia though. Leaving out only the side-story about her falling in love with Ash.

Being her trusted elder brother, he stopped saying he didn't believe her and in the end, came to believe her story whole-heartedly. She'd been right many times before after all. She had been right about the wardrobe, about seeing Aslan, and about traveling to Narnia through the painting in Aunt Alberta's spare room. So he chose to believe her now.

Edmund who had long learned that doubting Lucy's word was a mistake, instantly believed her and asked hundreds of questions. What was it like there now? How old did she say Caspian was? What was Rilian like? Did she think the ebony castle would ever be a threat to the peace in Narnia again?

He would have gone on asking question after question if Peter hadn't stopped him saying they should tell her about the twins. Lucy had a good laugh about that and found herself happy to be with her family again even though it had meant leaving Narnia for the last time.

It was Susan who found out about Lucy and Ash first. Lucy ended up telling her one night when they were sitting alone in the living room. She had noticed a change in her sister. She didn't avoid talking about Narnia anymore and she didn't distance herself from the family half so much as she used to.

"Susan," Lucy placed the book she had been reading down on the coffee table and turned to face her sister. "There's something I think you should know."

"What is it?" After the railway accident, Susan had become a better listener; at least towards Lucy. Perhaps she was afraid that something like that would happen again and she would never have another chance to talk to her little sister.

"It's about Ash." Lucy started. "He and I...we...we're...I..." She smiled weakly. "I'm not making any sense am I?"

"No." Susan admitted, smiling back at her. "but in all honesty, I'm having fun watching you try."

"Do you remember what I said about Narnia?" Lucy tried again.

Susan stiffened and for a moment Lucy worried that she was going back to her old ways. She held her jaw tightly together. Taking a deep breath she finally said, "About going back when you were in that coma?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes."

"What about it?" Susan asked.

"Remember what I said about Ash coming with me?" Lucy added.

"Yes." Susan remembered her saying something about that before.

"I didn't know how to tell Edmund and Peter so I left it out..." Lucy stammered. "I don't know how it happened exactly but Ash and I we ended up...sort of...falling in love with each other." Her face turned very red as she spoke these words.

Susan's reaction wasn't quite what she expected. She'd expected a confused blink and maybe a comment of 'isn't he a bit old for you?' or maybe even, 'I thought I was the one he liked' but all she did was hug her and exclaim, "Oh, Lu! That's wonderful!"

"It is?" Lucy asked as soon as Susan stopped hugging her.

"You two would be so cute together." Susan gushed happily. "You're both small for your ages, you both read the same sort of books, and he's just the right height for you too!"

"I'm glad..." Lucy hadn't really thought about it that way but if Susan wanted to, she supposed it was alright. "You don't think he's too old for me?"

"Of course not!" Susan exclaimed. "Oh, Lucy you've grown up so much." She hugged her again.

"Susan, I can't breathe!" Lucy protested.

Susan let go of her. "Of course Peter's going to have a fit."

Lucy's face fell. "You think so?"

Susan nodded. "Oh yes, I think so."

"How should I tell him?" Lucy asked nervously.

"Why don't you let me handle that?" Susan offered.

"Really?" Lucy was clearly surprised. It would take a load off of her mind but maybe it would be best if she told Peter herself. "Maybe I should do it."

"Alright." Susan shrugged. "Whatever you think is best."

"I'll tell him when he comes back from the university next holidays." Lucy decided.

_Some weeks later..._

"I'm home!" Peter burst through the doorway carrying a duffle bag over his shoulder.

Lucy noticed he had actually gained a little weight since the last time she'd seen him and felt relieved. He was taking care of himself again.

"Peter!" Lucy cried, rushing into her brother's out-stretched arms.

"How's my little Lu?" He beamed down at her.

"Doing very well thank you." She smiled up at him.

"Lucy's got a date coming over tonight." Susan announced.

"Susan..." Lucy turned and frowned at her. "Let me handle this."

"A date?" Peter crinkled his forehead.

"Well it's a study date." Lucy came up with.

"What are you studying? How to hold hands and blush at the same time?" Susan teased without looking up from the magazine she was reading.

"Maybe you need a drink of water from the kitchen, Su." Lucy hissed at her older sister.

Struggling not to laugh, Susan got up and left the room. "I think I do."

"When did you start courting again?" Peter asked his tone somewhere between horrified and curious.

"Oh leave her alone, Pete." Edmund came down the stairs and took a seat on the couch.

Susan re-entered the room with a glass of water in her hands. Edmund reached over the couch and took it away from her. He started to raise it to his lips and take a sip.

"There's something you should know about my date..." Lucy told him.

"Please tell me he doesn't have a tattoo." Peter begged.

"Not unless he's been keeping secrets." Susan joked, shooting Edmund the stink eye for stealing her water glass.

"No it's nothing like that..." Lucy assured him.

"Then what is it?" Peter asked gently.

"It's Ash." Lucy finally blurted out.

In complete shock, Edmund spat out his sip of water. "Didn't see that coming."

"Ash who?" Peter raised an eyebrow at her. "Not the Ash that comes here to talk to Susan all the time."

"That's him." Lucy admitted, turning redder than ever before.

"He's too old for you." Peter said firmly.

"Give it a rest, Peter." Edmund rolled his eyes. "At least it's someone we know and trust."

"Not anymore he isn't." Peter muttered before he noticed the look on Lucy's face. "Lu..."

"I really care about him, Peter." Lucy said softly. "I just wish you could be happy for us."

"It's not that." Peter explained. "It's just that first he liked Susan and now he's after you? It just doesn't make sense."

"Sure it does." Susan cut in. "He has more in common with Lucy than he ever had with me."

Peter gave in with a sigh. "Alright, go forth with my blessing."

"Thank you!" Lucy squealed, jumping up and hugging her brother again.

The door bell rang.

"That'll be Ash." Lucy opened the door.

Ash still walked around with a crutch because his ribs hadn't fully healed yet and sometimes that made it hard for him to walk around without a lot of pain. As soon as he saw Lucy at the door, a smile spread across his face. "You look beautiful." He told her.

Lucy looked away shyly. "Thanks. You look nice too."

"Have her back by ten." Peter said almost harshly, giving Ash a stern look.

"No problem." Ash happened to look up at Susan and Edmund who mouthed, 'Eleven'.

Lucy kissed Peter goodbye on the cheek, waved to Edmund and Susan, grabbed her coat and then left with Ash.

Late that night, Edmund was sleeping soundly when he felt someone poke him in the side. He let out a grunt and rolled over.

"Ed!" Peter's voice said as he poked him again.

Finally Edmund cracked one eye open and looked at his brother. "What?"

"What are you doing?" Peter asked in a causal way as though it were the middle of the afternoon and they'd just met on the street.

"Throwing nuts at the Telmarines!" Edmund snapped, shaking off the last remains of a dream he had been in the middle of.

"Good luck with that." Peter chuckled.

"Peter, what time is it?" Edmund demanded.

"Three in the morning." Peter shrugged, climbing onto the other side of the bed. "Why?"

"What's wrong?" Edmund asked, wondering why in the world his brother was bothering him at this ungodly hour. "Didn't Lucy come back from her date?"

"Oh yeah, she's fine." Peter assured him. "Although I had to give Ash a talking to for bringing her back at almost ten thirty."

Edmund laughed into his pillow.

"What's so funny?" Peter wanted to know.

"Nothing." Edmund lied. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

"No Edmund, wake up." Peter insisted, nudging him with his knee.

"Why?" Edmund sat up and glared him in exasperation.

"We haven't fully talked about this!" Peter exclaimed.

"About what?" Edmund groaned. Couldn't they talk at another time when his brain was actually working, not when they should be asleep?

"About Lucy dating Ash!" Peter said, looking a little distressed. "Don't hide anything."

"There's nothing to hide." Edmund insisted sleepily. "I like Ash. I think he and Lucy are good together."

"But you realize this means she's growing up." Peter said nervously.

"Good for her, can I go back to sleep now?" Edmund grabbed the covers and pulled them over his head.

Peter yanked them back off. "No, you don't understand. Everything we know is going to change."

"It will be different." Edmund agreed.

"No not just different." Peter told him. "Our lives as we know it will be over!"

"Peter, we are not dying." Edmund reminded him.

"I know but this could morph into something horrible beyond our control." Peter clearly hadn't been getting enough sleep lately. Either that or he was going insane.

"What, like the giants in the northern border of Narnia?" Edmund asked somewhat sarcastically.

"Metaphorically speaking, yes." Peter said. "And I don't want it to be like that so that's why we're talking about it now."

"Peter, I am in no way anticipating being attacked by huge bloodthirsty giants with wooden clubs because Lucy is dating Ash!" Edmund exclaimed.

"Oh good, good." Peter patted him on the shoulder, seemingly satisfied by his answer.

"Weirdo." Edmund muttered, rolling over and pulling the covers over his head again.

Meanwhile in another part of the house, Lucy couldn't fall asleep. She tossed and turned. Finally she sat up and turned on the light beside her bed. She reached for her back pack which had been recovered from the train wreck. She pulled out the book Peter had given her, none the worse for a little wear and tear. Not knowing why, she flipped to the end. That's when she realized something strange. The last ten pages were blank. Peter had done that on purpose so that she would know that she hadn't yet reached the end of her story. That there would always be room for one more poem.

-The End-


End file.
